Anticipation grows for Columbia State’s proposed technology center
Leaders at Columbia State Community College remain hopeful that the institution’s campus in Maury County will soon be approved for its first new building in more than 20 years.
The college’s proposed Southern Regional Technology Center is planned to serve as a state-of-the-art facility, expanding the college’s footprint in health science and industrial technology.
The center is a partnership between Columbia State and the Tennessee College of Applied Technology’s Pulaski and Hohenwald campuses. The project serves the college's mission to provide the people of south Middle Tennessee with the training to meet the needs of the region’s largest industries and another step forward in its ongoing expansion to provide technical training programs for the region.
Described by Columbia State President Dr. Janet F. Smith as a state-of-the art facility, the proposed building at the college’s Columbia campus is planned to serve as a center-point in providing the latest training in industry and healthcare fields with an emphasis on business partnerships, offering students internship, apprenticeships and job placement opportunities.
Proposal ascends government ladder
Smith confirmed the project has been recommended by the Tennessee Board of Regents as one of its top three projects for the coming year as part of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission.
“We have been working very hard on the climb to make this happen,” she told The Daily Herald.
The commission then reviewed the list and selected the building as its second top recommended capital project for the state’s next budget. The proposal has been forwarded to the office of Gov. Bill Lee for consideration in his budget for 2022.
“We are hopeful,” Smith said. “We understand that it is a good funding year at the state. Sales tax has been very good this year. We are very hopeful that we will be one of the recommended projects. We are excited, but we are keeping it contained.”
Smith said she is hopeful that Lee will propose funding in his own budget presented during February's annual State of the State address.
The project, which was first proposed in 2017, was ranked 13th on the THEC list in 2020.
Center to fuel Middle Tennessee’s growing economy
Southern Regional Technology Center will provide a two-pronged solution to feeding the region’s growing manufacturing industry with trained professionals and certified personnel to the region's health care providers, who continue to struggle to find certified workers amid a national shortage of workers.
The 99,000 square-foot building, estimated to cost $50 million, will house programs that will provide graduating students an associate degree of applied science and technical certifications in advanced manufacturing, automotive technology, CNC machining training, industrial maintenance, fire science, EMS, nursing, radiology, medical lab technology, engineering systems technology, respiration care technology, health informatics and veterinary technology.
Locally, ALIGN Maury, a workforce study carried out by the Maury County Chamber and Economic Alliance and Boyette Strategic Advisors determined the project is a top priority for the community and the surrounding region because of the area's robust industrial sector.
“There are jobs out there. We just need a place to provide the training,” Smith said. “We want folks to be aware of what is there as we work to move forward.”
More:Southern hospitals have lost thousands of workers, and those who remain are exhausted
More:Massachusetts tops 5 states with the worst worker shortages. See where your state ranks.
More:U.S. doctor shortage worsens as efforts to recruit Black and Latino students stall
Community promises to fund new building
Smith said Columbia Sate has collected more than $1 million in financial support to uphold a 4% local match required for the state to support the project.
Maury Regional Medical Center, the Maury County Commission, the Maury County Industrial Development Board, First Farmers & Merchants Bank have all pledged to support the needed match, Smith said.
“We are very appreciative of the community and how it has come to back this project and how our employees see it as extremely important to them and the continued growth of their own companies.”
The new center, to be located at the western end of the campus near Rutherford Lane, would follow the Columbia campuses’ $6.5 million renovation of the John W. Finney Memorial Library completed in 2020 and the state funding of $26 million for a new arts and technology building at its Williamson Campus.
More:Columbia State to build new arts and technology building in Williamson County
More:Columbia State's John W. Finney library reopens with rich community history
Where education and industry meet
Smith said the new facility would mark a return for TCAT’s presence in Maury County after leaving a joint campus with Columbia State at Spring Hills’s Northfield Workforce Development & Conference Center.
“We no longer have a technical center that is very diverse in its offerings, and this new project will be an answer to that,” Smith said. “It provides increased educational opportunities that meet workforce needs in this community.”
More:Ripple effect: How a boom in manufacturing is building Maury County's future
More:Northfield $9.2 million sale officially closes with Worldwide Stages
With the expansion of industries in the surrounding region, skilled workers will be needed.
“We have a battery plant that is going to be coming in a few years, and it is going to need quite a number of employees,” Smith said. “We have industries here that need welders, but we do not have a local program to provide that. This will extend what we do here at the college and allow us to increase our workforce programs.”
She said the new building will also help house vocational programs that are being offered by the local public school district, providing a means of duel-enrollment for high school students to pursue an associate’s degree in industrial technology, while they complete their high school degree.
More:'Here to change lives': Mt. Pleasant High School unveils expanded welding program
More:Columbia State launches its lineworker academy
“It is a very important project for this community and a direction that we think we need to go at Columbia State in terms of providing the programs and services to meet the needs of this area," Smith said. "To me, it is much more than that. It is very much needed in this community if it is going to provide eligible workers with the skills needed for the jobs that are here and will be coming."
Reach Mike Christen at mchristen@c-dh.net. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeChristenCDH and on Instagram @michaelmarco. Please consider supporting his work and that of other Daily Herald journalists by subscribing to the publication.
Gloss