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Oil and Gas Training Center in Line for $250K from State
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- A proposed training center targeting the oil and gas industry move closer to reality under the state capital improvements bill released Tuesday.
The 2014 capital budget directs $250,000 for a proposed Tech Belt Oil & Gas Learning Cente to be located at the former U.S. Army base in Lordstown.
A provision of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2013, inserted by U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-13 Ohio, transfers the seven acres of the former base, along with Kunkel Drive, to the village of Lordstown for public use. The land is at the northeast corner of the original Ohio Commerce Center property, which Routh-Hurlbert Real Estate is marketing with a focus on the oil and gas industry.
“We have been working with the village because we had the idea of converting [the property] into an oil and gas learning center,” Chuck Joseph, broker for Routh-Hurlbert, told The Business Journal. The goal is to offer courses including welding classes and safety classes, as well as operational classes at a well site, he said. The group working to develop the center has reached out to Eastern Gateway Community College, which is acting as the administrative agency for the project but would not provide funding for the center, Hiram College and Hondros College. Discussions also have taken place with representatives of Youngstown State University, Kent State University and Trumbull Career and Technical Center.
State Sen. Capri Cafaro, D-32 Hubbard, said in a statement issued by her office that she is pleased to see projects she had advocated for in her district, including the oil and gas training center, get included in the capital budget. “I will continue to advocate for these projects as well as the projects that have not been included as the capital budget bill moves through the legislature,” she said.
The local group seeking to develop the training center ought more than $1 million from the state to furnish, equip and renovate the building, Joseph said. Ownership of the property is still in the process of being transferred from the Army, he reported. The transfer could take place in June or July at the earliest, which would “almost” match the timing of the budget bill moving through the Ohio General Assembly, he said.
“Once that happens, we’re going to prioritize expenditures to figure out where we get the best bang for the buck initially and how we can continue to improve and get to the ultimate goal we set,” he said.
Joseph said the group is reaching out to representatives to the area building trades for assistance with getting the building operational, and will seek other grants for the project. Oil and gas companies that would employ the workers being trained there would also be tapped as potential funding sources, as well as to ascertain their needs. “We’ll take recommendations from the oil and gas people,” he said.
“Maybe we do two classrooms to start off with and as things progress, or if we get more grants or we get more money coming into us, then we’ll figure out how maybe we can do the welding lab, maybe dress up some other offices, maybe create an administrative position,” he said.
Classroom space will also be leased to entities such as Hondros, for example, that don’t already have a Mahoning Valley presence. “They could come in and rent a classroom from us,” Joseph said. “That becomes a source of income.”
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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