News
January 04, 2008
Kershaw County Awarded $1 Million Grant
1.04.2008
KC Awarded $1 Million Grant
By Jim Tatum
Chronicle Independent
Kershaw County will ring in the new year with good news. The county has been informed it will receive a grant for $1 million to build a new workforce training center, Kershaw County Council Chairman Steve S. Kelly Jr. said Thursday.
“I just received a letter from the governor informing us that Kershaw County will receive a $1 million community enrichment grant from the Community Development Block Grant program to construct the workforce training center,” Kelly said. “The center will be the first phase in the development of a full-service campus for Central Carolina Technical College (CCTC).”
The new campus, which has been in the planning stages for about three years, is to be located near I-10 and US 521 on a 40 acre tract adjacent to Steeplechase Industrial Park, Kelly said. “This has been a cooperative effort between a number of people,” Kelly said of the project. “The goal is to be able to have programs available to provide job skills primarily for industry. We can let industries know we have such a center and facility here, and can help them with whatever their needs might be.”
Programs might include, but not be limited to, welding, engineering technology, industrial maintenance, tool and die training, and nursing. “The important thing is, you can actually set up programs fairly quickly to meet the needs of the region – that’s the key,” Kelly said. “For example, there is a shortage in this region for pharmacy technicians. We could conceivably set up a program and get people trained and into the workforce in a fairly short amount of time. That’s just one example.”
The campus and the workforce training center have been an ongoing project between Kershaw, Lee and Sumter counties and CCTC Kelly said. About three years ago, a steering committee was formed to start working on this project; it included CCTC officials and government officials and business and community leaders from the three counties.
“CCTC’s mini campus, which is housed in the government center, is literally bursting at the seams,” Kelly noted. “This is an important first step in developing a new, full service campus for this area.”
A number of people, including county staff and Santee Lynches Council of Governments officials, worked on the grant process, Kelly said. “It’s been a great cooperative effort,” Kelly noted. “We are very excited and pleased to see this happen – it’s such an important and positive thing for this community and the whole region.”
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