Plans are moving ahead to build the Franklin County Regional Career Center in Hampton. The center will be a joint effort between NIACC and the Hampton-Dumont-CAL, West Fork, and Belmond-Klemme School DIstricts.
Brian Wogen is NIACC’s Director of School Partnerships, and tells RadioOnTheGo News this is the final piece in a long process.
“Been up and running now for four years in Forest City called the John B. Hanson Career Center and then this fall we started one in Charles City it’s called the NIACC Center in Charles City. This is the third step in a three-step process that NIACC’s goal is to put every high school within 30 miles of the NIACC campus or one of these career centers. So where we still have the gap is now in our southern part of our region and that’ll be the Franklin County Career Center.”
NIACC President Joel Pedersen describes what the new center will focus on.
“Basically our nurses are gonna have the beds in there to be able to go through some of the simulations. We’ll also have an advanced manufacturing lab that will be with great equipment where kids will get a chance to use those. Those things, we’re also going to have a space for Mary’s organization to be right on site with us, which we think is a great thing, because oftentimes when we hear about things, NIACC works together with the community partners from that standpoint. So we’ll also have a center director that will kind of help make sure that there’s any community needs. We can offer a space for, like I said, could be a meeting that a business is having. It could be a class that we’re doing in the evening, but basically those three areas, classrooms, computer labs, lab areas, and those areas for our students and for our community.”
Mary Amsbaugh is Executive Director of the Franklin County Development Association, and tells RadioOnTheGo News that they offered NIACC two parcels of land for the center.
“We offered whatever property they wanted. Property they chose is by the airport, just next to the industrial park. More infrastructure there, and there wasn’t as much needed to proceed. So they chose that property. They also chose where it was gonna be located. We know we just offered that property wherever they decided, if it was gonna be in Sheffield, Hampton, wherever, that was an offer that we had.”
The NIACC Board of Directors will hold a public hearing about the career center project on October 17th.
