MOHAVE COUNTY – Mohave County supervisors are supporting a Mohave Community College (MCC) initiative to establish an advanced manufacturing training center in Kingman. Board approval came during Monday’s meeting to send a letter of support to Dist. 5 representative Regina Cobb, who is attempting to secure supplemental funding from the state.
Dist. 1 Sup Travis Lingenfelter said the proposed center would provide training for various trades supporting local business and industry.
“Not everybody in the county can have a four-year degree,” Lingenfelter said. “This training facility that the college is going for is for truck driving, for the trades and for all of those workforce manufacturing type skill sets that are important to Mohave County.”
MCC President Dr. Stacy Klippenstein told the board that Sunbelt Development is donating ten acres for the project at a second phase industrial park the city is working to secure and develop.
“Our goal is to be able to create training that’s centered around foundations of manufacturing, electrical controls, robotics, machining, hydraulics, neumatics, process control and many more,” Klippenstein said. “Our main goal is really to help Kingman and Mohave County advance in bringing new business and industries into this area.”
Klippenstein said MCC plans to fund most of the project, but hopes for state aid through Cobb’s effort. He said total project cost is estimated at about $8 million; $5.5 million to build the 20,000 sq. ft.-plus center, $1.5 million for equipment procurement and curriculum development and $700,000 for site improvements that would include a CDL training range.
Klippenstein said businesses in Lake Havasu and Bullhead City can make arrangements to have employees or work teams engage in training that would be tailor-made for their operations. He said some enterprises as far away as Scenic in extreme northwest Mohave County have indicated in interest in just that.
Kingman Mayor Jen Miles said the facility is much needed to help the county develop a workforce better equipped to meet local demand. “This could just set up a talent pool that is going to feed our growth as a regional industrial, transportation, logistics and manufacturing hub,” she said.
Klippenstein the goal is to open the training center in Jan., 2023.
