By Brian Sanders, The Republic Reporter
NORTH VERNON — Jennings County is pinning its economic development hopes on its education center in North Vernon Industrial Park.
The center will address the No. 1 recruiting tool for new industry — a trained work force.
“We have a solid, valuable work force,” said Kathy Ertel, executive director of Jennings County Economic Development Commission. “If (companies) can’t find enough qualified workers they won’t come or stay here.”
“We definitely have to have it,” said North Vernon Mayor John G. Hall of the education center.
The center would help companies locate qualified help and train the current work force. Personnel services would be offered by the Department of Workforce Development and courses could be available through Ivy Tech State College.
However, plans for the center were recently dealt a setback when bids from construction companies vying for the project came back higher than anticipated.
The 11,000-square-foot facility was estimated to cost $1.3 million.
However, bids came back between $300,000 and $600,000 higher than North Vernon wanted to pay.
City Engineer Brad Bender, was called on to lower the project’s cost by removing a few bells and whistles, said Hall.
The North Vernon Redevelopment Commission hopes to put the project up for bids early in 2006.
The center will be funded through North Vernon’s 300-acre tax-increment financing district, which was formed in 1994.
Hall said that TIF would cover the bricks and mortar, but he will be seeking operating funds from the state.
North Vernon’s yet-to-be named education center will be one of the first in Indiana to be housed inside an industrial park.
The facility will include four classrooms capable of supporting 20 to 25 students and will feature a computer lab and a science lab, which would facilitate some nursing courses.
“There’s a great need for nurses,” Ertel said.
Initially the center was to open Aug. 1, but the opening date is uncertain.