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Funds coming together for training facility

Jill Schramm/MDN Tim Mihalick, chairman of a Community Stakeholders Committee, speaks to the MAGIC Fund Screening Committee Friday.

A screening committee has recommended using $800,000 in MAGIC Fund dollars to buy a Trinity Health building for a Center for Technical Education in Minot.

Combined with $3.45 million recently authorized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development from Minot’s Community Development Block Grant-National Disaster Resilience program, the MAGIC Fund money will help launch programs to provide specialized career-oriented training programs for Minot residents. A CTE was included in Minot’s National Disaster Resilience program for $1.5 million, but about $2 million also was shifted from an abandoned plan for a downtown gathering space.

John Zakian, disaster resilience program manager for the City of Minot, said in a city news release that NDR funds will cover the entire proposed cost of rehabilitating and equipping the CTE facility. Following acquisition, the proposed renovation of the building includes converting existing space into a laboratory and classrooms, a computer center, administrative offices and study areas.

“This project has been in the discussion phase for several years, and with HUD’s release of funds we can move forward to make this center a reality,” Zakian said. “We look forward to continuing to work together with all our partners to provide this center for our community.”

Some of those partners appeared before the MAGIC Fund Screening Committee Friday to support a request from Minot Area Development Corp. for $800,000 to buy a Trinity building at 120 Burdick Expressway East. Trinity is asking $1.1 million as the valuation of the property. The 13,094-square-foot building was constructed in 1957.

File Photo A Trinity building at 120 Burdick Expressway East is proposed to be purchased for a career and technical center.

Trinity agreed to contribute back to the CTE center $300,000, leaving the $800,000 difference, according to Tim Mihalick, chairman of the Community Stakeholders Committee. The stakeholders committee formed as part of economic development efforts through the resilience program, of which a CTE is one of the initiatives.

The current plan is for Minot State University Foundation to own the property once purchased.

The screening committee’s recommendation now goes to the Minot City Council.

The stakeholders committee has had discussions with other groups regarding the CTE and is prepared to seek contributions to be paid over a four-year period as follows: MSU Foundation, $60,000; Dakota College at Bottineau Foundation, $40,000; St. Joseph’s Community Health Foundation, $60,000; Minot Area Community Foundation, $100,000. By operating through the state’s University System, a CTE facility also would have access to state career and technical education funds.

The center is expected to have $971,500 in programming and operations costs in its first year and create nine full-time and two part-time jobs. In five years, operation and programming costs are expected to grow to about $1.3 million, with 12 full-time employees and four part-time. Average wages would be $19 to $29 an hour in the first year, increasing to $22 to $33 an hour by year five.

The center potentially could open by fall of 2022. Within a few years, it is expected to have capacity for 250 to 300 students.

The initial focus of the center will be information technology and health. DCB currently offers practical nursing, associate degree nursing, paramedic technology and diagnostic medical sonography through Trinity Health and information technology through MSU. Other programs being explored include golf and turf management, logistics/supply chain management, certified nursing assistants, certified medical assistants and hospitality.

“So we already have efforts in place. The challenge is that in order to take things to the next level, we really need a facility, and we need a home to increase the visibility,” said Jerry Migler, DCB campus dean.

There is a need for training in welding, automotive technology, diesel technology and heating and air conditioning, but start-up costs for these programs are beyond the funding available at this time. Those costs could be $2 million or more per program, or as much as $6.5 million for a diesel technology program, said Jerry Migler, campus dean at DCB.

“This, though, builds the foundation so that we can move into programs like that in the future,” he said.

Minot and Jamestown are the last of North Dakota’s 10 largest cities without a post-secondary career and technical center.

“We’re at a loss right now in Minot because we’re not able to do that,” said MSU President Steve Shirley, who noted students leave to get training and don’t come back. He said a CTE would benefit MSU because some students would go on for bachelor’s degrees or they might bring friends and family who want that higher degree. Some credits in the CTE program also might come through MSU.

Migler said about 65% of all jobs require some type of post-secondary degree, compared to 28% in 1972.

“The way things have evolved, it’s become more and more important to have access to that training,” he said. “If we can keep our talent local, give them the skills, then we have the ability to keep a workforce here as well.”

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