The biggest satellite campus for Chattanooga State Community College soon will relocate and expand to accommodate the growing demand for technical and vocational training in the Sequatchie Valley.
Marion County Mayor Howell Moss said he hopes work will begin this summer on the initial $3.1 million phase of a 140-acre regional training center to be built on a former horse farm between Kimball and Jasper along U.S. Highway 41 near Interstate 24.
The new training complex eventually will replace the county’s 17-year-old training facility in Kimball and help Chattanooga State expand its course offerings and enrollment.
Jeff Olingy, a vice president for Chattanooga State, said a new and bigger Marion County training facility will allow the college to expand its courses and classrooms. The Kimball campus has grown since 1993 into the biggest of Chattanooga State’s five satellite sites to include more than 400 students each year.
“We really are busting at the seams where we are now, which is why we are so excited about this new project,” Mr. Olingy said. “We don’t have enough parking spaces or classroom for students, we don’t have enough office space for our staff and we don’t have enough computer lab space.”
Mr. Moss said the new center is needed to serve the labor demands for new businesses in the region, including the planned $110 million Chicago Bridge and Iron fabrication plant being built in New Hope, the $280 million plant addition made by Alstom Power in Chattanooga and the $1 billion Volkswagen auto assembly plant under construction in Chattanooga.
“A high school diploma won’t get you in the door of these new industries that are coming into the area and many of the existing companies already here,” said Mr. Moss, who has worked for most of the past decade to secure funding for a new training campus.
New training center* Where: On 140-acre site in Kimball, Tenn.* Investment: $3.1 million phase will include two training buildings. Eventually complex could include eight or more buildings* Beneficiaries: More than 400 students enrolled in Chattanoga State, plus Adult Basic Education programs. Welding program will help serve new CBI, Alstom Power and VW plants.* Funding: A combination of Marion County investments in the site and federal Appalachian Regional Commission and Economic Development Administration grants.Appalachian Regional Commission and Economic Development Administration grants.
“Jobs are much more high-tech today and, if we can’t train our workers here, industry will go somewhere else,” he said. “This is life or death for our economy.”
Federal grants will help pay for much of the initial phase of the new campus. Gov. Phil Bredesen has recommended that the U.S. Appalachian Regional Commission provide $500,000 for the facility, according to Michaela Jackson of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development.
Marion County, which already has agreed to provide $1.5 million through its land purchase and other contributions to the complex, is applying for a matching federal grant from the U.S. Economic Development Administration, Mr. Moss said.
“We have the property and most of the utilities on site,” he said. “It’s a great location with highway frontage and access to the population in this area.”
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