Technically speaking, PTEC is awesome

Parker Technical Education Center on the Rathdrum Prairie is open for business.

Students are now scurrying about the 110,000-square-foot North Idaho College facility that’s only a couple of hammers and wrenches west of Kootenai Technical Education Campus. The fact that high school students can literally step from KTEC and into PTEC gives our region the best one-two technical education punch imaginable.

Even though the grand opening is over, there’s still work to do. As speakers noted during a ceremony Wednesday evening, PTEC is about $500,000 short of its $5 million fundraising goal.

That $4.5 million certainly represents a lot of success. Avista Foundation, Bank of America Foundation, bankcda, Bay Shore Systems, Inc., Jack and Camie Beebe, the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, Jim and Jerre Coleman and Bradley and Shariae Dugdale have done their part. They’re among the major donors who, as of Sept. 28, qualified for commemorative naming rights because of their substantial contributions.

So have Empire Aerospace, Empire Airlines, Fatbeam, Frontier Communications, Harriet Cheney Cowles Foundation, Idaho Central Credit Union, Idaho Independent Bank, INB, J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Family Foundation, and Knudtsen Chevrolet Co.

And so have Mountain West Bank, Napa Auto Parts, Norco Welding Supply, Doug Parker, Jim and Diane Parker, Gary Schneidmiller, STCU, Tom and Sue Thilo, Washington Trust Bank and Young Construction Group of Idaho, Inc.

These generous community giants have invested to ensure generations of local students will face rewarding futures. Nothing against history majors and law school chasers, but many of the careers that will be waiting for PTEC grads are the kind that will evolve but not disappear under recessionary pressures or technology changes. And these are good careers we’re talking about, including automotive technology, collision repair, computer-aided design technology (architectural and mechanical), diesel technology, industrial mechanic/millwright, machining and welding technology.

Brad Dugdale, a 25-year North Idaho College Foundation board member, quipped after walking around the sparkling new facility, “You can smell the jobs.”

Those jobs smell mighty good. They’ll smell even better when they belong to your children and grandchildren.

If you can imagine your name or the name of your business appearing on this power plant for local career training, call the North Idaho College Foundation at 769-5978 or go to: http://www.nic.edu/websites/default.aspx?dpt=183