As Lunden Herndon worked on a vehicle during his automotive technology class at North Idaho College, he navigated around four tires placed in his immediate workspace.

Since there was nowhere else to put the tires because of lack of space, the freshman made do by placing them directly below the lifted vehicle.

“It creates a lot of bottlenecks,” Herndon said of the tight quarters. “When you have to move parts and equipment around just to work, that’s when there’s issues.”

That’s why NIC trade students and staff are looking forward to the $15 million, 100,000-square-foot Career Technical Education Facility to be built on Lancaster Road in Rathdrum.

Construction could start soon on the facility, which will be on the west side of the Kootenai Technical Education Campus (KTEC) attended by high school juniors and seniors from the Post Falls, Coeur d’Alene and Lakeland school districts. The new facility is slated to open in the summer of 2016.

“We are finalizing the design,” said Chris Martin, NIC’s vice president for finance and business affairs. “I am excited to share that in the near future (around mid-May), you will see site work taking place.”

The facility will house programs in welding, machining, industrial mechanics, outdoor recreational vehicle technology, diesel technology, computer-aided design, automotive technology and auto collision repair.

“Getting all the programs under one roof will be an advantage for the students and us,” said Mark Browning, NIC’s vice president for communications and governmental relations, adding that the programs are scattered at different Coeur d’Alene locations. “It will make the operation more efficient.”

The cost of the facility will not raise taxes. It is being funded with previous tax dollars — about $2 million per year — that have been set aside for capital projects such as the CTE facility.

“The college had enough vision to set aside enough funds to almost pay for the entire facility so it doesn’t have to go to the taxpayer, students or Legislature for any obligation,” Browning said. “It’s being paid for out of a savings account.”

Browning said NIC hopes that an additional $5 million can be raised through the nonprofit NIC Foundation and a grant through the federal Economic Development Administration (EDA) that would fund equipment purchases and upgrades for the new facility as there would be more space to accommodate more equipment and students.

Browning said the college expects to hear from the foundation by mid-April as to whether it can assist. The foundation is having a feasibility study done before it makes a commitment.

He said NIC plans to apply for the grant later this spring and would hear back in 30 days whether it is awarded any funding. The amounts vary.

Browning said that, even if the grant and foundation possibilities fall through, that won’t affect the project’s timeline. However, he said it would likely mean that the auto collision and diesel technology programs would temporarily stay housed on the Coeur d’Alene campus until enough funds can be generated to move those programs to Rathdrum.

Browning said the programs offered at KTEC and NIC’s CTE facility will be similar, but offer different levels of certifications.

“There’s certainly no duplication,” he said.

KTEC allows high school students to explore the trades and, if they decide they want to pursue a career in that field, it can act as a feeder school to the NIC facility, Browning said. The high school courses are intended to give students a base knowledge of the fields, while the college programs are more advanced.

“Having the two together will help complete the corridor for technical education,” Browning said.

Eve Knudtsen, owner of Knudtsen Chevrolet in Post Falls, said NIC’s new facility is justified because there’s a demand for skilled workers. Her company is currently seeking up to three skilled auto technicians.

“We need a certain level of proficiency in the technicians that the KTEC program doesn’t provide,” she said. “Most of the technicians (of the college program) have been getting jobs as soon as they graduate so this (new facility) should help. It will be a beautiful complement to the auto program at KTEC.”

Knudtsen said the facility will not only benefit the auto industry but other sectors that need skilled workers. Having more skilled workers available should also help attract companies to North Idaho, she said.

“Anything that we can do that helps the local community train a skilled workforce, I’m in,” she said.

Scott Rouse, a service technician for Robideaux Motors and an NIC Automotive Technology Advisory Committee member, said many of the workers in his industry are nearing retirement and there aren’t near as many qualified young workers available.

“There is definitely a need to have more students in the program,” he said, adding that hundreds wait to get into the program but only about 12 new students can be admitted each fall. “The different businesses of the advisory committee are experiencing the same situation.”

Rouse said students need a certificate from a program such as NIC’s at a minimum to be service technicians at most dealerships.

Mark Magill, NIC automotive technology instructor, said he’s looking forward to the move to Rathdrum because his students must stagger the vehicles in the stalls of the Coeur d’Alene shop to allow enough space to work.

“It’s a physical space issue,” he said, adding that also creates safety issues. “We physically don’t have room. You wouldn’t even be able to open the doors (without staggering vehicles.) It’s easy to get 30 people in a classroom, but not in a lab. It’s just not doable or safe. We have 20 stalls, but can only work on 11 vehicles at any given time.”

Magill said often times three or four vehicles are parked in the center lane of the shop, so when a rig is finished and others are in the way, vehicle shuffling is necessary to pull out.

The program currently has 6,200 square feet of space and works on vehicles owned by members of the NIC community. Moving to the new facility will double that.

Magill said there’s a huge demand for the program’s services.

“We’re 25 deep (on the waiting list) right now,” he said.

“The facility will allow us to take in more students to meet that demand,” he said.

Magill said he receives a few requests each week from the auto industry to hold trainings or other events such as product launches at the shop but has to decline, so that has limited the relationship between education and industry.

John Chambers, chief operating officer at Heatercraft Marine Products in Rathdrum, said manufacturers also see a lot of advantages with the new facility.

“We have a hard time finding aluminum welders,” he said, adding that working with such a metal is more specialized than steel. “We need to train our local students and keep them in the area. Being next to KTEC will make it an easy transition.”

Martin said NIC anticipates going to bid for construction of the facility at the end of April or first of May. John Young of Polin and Young has been hired as the owner’s representative to oversee the project. Architects West is the architect. The building will consume 10 acres of the 40-acre site as the remaining land can be used for future expansion.

Martin told the NIC board of trustees that last-minute adjustments have been made before the design is finalized to ensure the project stays within budget. Those include having steel rather than brick for three sides of the building, a renegotiated architect engineering fee and moving the building closer to KTEC to reduce the need for a sewer lift station.

“We’re looking to squeeze where we can,” Martin told the board.

Board member Ron Nilson said the college has a responsibility to build the facility without any taxpayer burden and keep the price tag within the $15 million price tag because that’s how the board approved the proposal.

“We’ve made perfectly clear in the meetings that we’re not going to go to the taxpayer (for additional funds),” Nilson said. “We need to continue to hold the course.”

Freshman automotive technology student Krystyna Zak said the facility will open opportunities for more students and provide a better and safer work environment.

“Sometimes you feel like your playing footsies with you classmates,” she said while working on a vehicle. “I’m excited about being in a more modern shop atmosphere.”