The Northwest Line Joint Apprenticeship Training Committee (NW Line JATC) plans to relocate its Warrenton, Ore.-based training center and Vancouver-based administration offices to Battle Ground.
Construction on the new $5 to $6 million campus is expected to begin next year and open in mid-2017, said Mike Kiessling, director of the NW Line JATC, a nonprofit organization which trains unionized workers for the electrical construction industry.
“Our trust committee has been looking for a more central location for 10 years and they finally pulled the trigger,” said Kiessling. “Battle Ground is the center of our jurisdiction – Oregon, Washington, Northern California and Northern Idaho.”
The NW Line JATC recently purchased 10 acres at 1705 SE 17th Street in Battle Ground for about $1 million. Vancouver-based Erick Bjork Architecture, which specializes in office and business park design, was hired to develop the budget and layout of the new building.
The NW Line JATC has leased its training center at the Camp Rilea Military Base in Warrenton for the last 29 years. Once the new Battle Ground facility is complete, the organization will still offer classroom courses for students at satellite locations throughout Washington and Oregon.
“We will still have Saturday school locations because the apprentices need flexibility,” said Kiessling. “This program isn’t just regional specific. You travel where the work is.”
The Battle Ground campus will feature 5,500 square feet of administrative offices, 22,000 square feet of hands-on classrooms and an outdoor poll yard for working simulations and power transmissions devices.
“Our classrooms will be more modern than what we have now,” said Kiessling.
For example, classrooms will feature high-definition projectors for viewing rigging vectoring drawings.
The 5-acre outdoor yard will feature transmission lines, distribution voltage lines and an underground residential distribution (URD) section.
“It will be like the real world, but fake,” Kiessling said.
The NW Line JATC’s trust committee – made up of representatives from the National Electrical Contractors Association (NECA) and members from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) – is working to secure financing for the project.
“We have the property. Right now, we just have to build it and pay for the building and training center,” said Kiessling.
The organization has about 400 students enrolled annually in one of its two apprenticeship programs to become certified journeymen linemen. The Outside Electrical Lineman Apprenticeship (7,000 hours) enrolls about 250 students and the Power Line Clearance & Tree Trimming Apprenticeship (4,000 hours) enrolls about 150 students.
Three times a year, the organization offers a 10-week Vocation Outside Line Training Academy (VOLTA), which prepares students to enter the outside line industry with basic knowledge.
Enrollment in the NW Line JATC’s apprentice programs at the new location may increase if the economy improves and construction is in more demand, said Kiessling. Also, he expects enrollment in VOLTA to increase from 35 to 45 students per session.
The demand for jobs in the construction industry is growing, said Kiessling.
“A lot of people are rebuilding the infrastructure in America. And [President] Obama has committed more money to build out the backbone, so we have less brown outs and black outs,” he said.
