A NEW SIGN was recently put up at the future location of the Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee of the Northwest Line Construction Industry training center in Battle Ground. The organization recently purchased the property, located at 1705 SE 17th St., and officials hope to begin construction on the training facility in spring of 2016.
BATTLE GROUND - The Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee (JATC) of the Northwest Line Construction Industry recently purchased property in Battle Ground for $1 million with plans to build a new training center next year.
The nonprofit organization trains apprentices from all over the country in line/construction, power line and tree trimming and more. The purchased property is just less than 10 acres and is located at 1705 SE 17th St., in Battle Ground.
Mike Kiessling, JATC director, said the organization was looking to build a new training center somewhere in Washington, as the current training facility is located at the Camp Rilea Military Reservation in Warrenton, OR. Kiessling said they have leased the property at Camp Rilea for about 30 years and he said the location is kind of “out of the way” for a lot of apprentices needing training.
With the end of their lease on the current property coming up, Kiessling said they decided to start looking at different locations and properties for the training facility. Since the organization registers apprentices in the state of Washington, he said it made sense to have the training center somewhere in Washington.
Kiessling said they almost bought the Clark County Saddle Club property located along 117th Street in the Vancouver/Orchards area, but after some unforeseen issues came up, they decided to go with the property in Battle Ground.
“Battle Ground was just the right kind of property,” Kiessling said. “This property worked and it was a good deal for us. This property is shovel ready and has already had some water mitigation done to it.”
Kiessling said the new training center will be a combination of office space and classroom space. There will also be training yards that allow apprentices to simulate what they would deal with out in the field.
“As people go through their apprenticeships, everybody has their own experiences,” Kiessling said. “We need to make sure they have a good foundation in what they’re doing and that they’re safe and productive.”
Kiessling said they are hoping to break ground on the new training center by spring of 2016. Then, “in a perfect world,” he said they hope to have the facility complete by fall of 2016. Kiessling said they are currently in the process of working with an architect to design and build the new center, and officials are also still in the process of determining the cost of the project and how it will be financed.
The current center trains apprentices from Oregon, Washington, and parts of Northern California and Idaho. The program, which totals 7,000 hours, includes classes of both 10-week sessions that begin in April, July and October, with a maximum enrollment of 32. The training center also offers sessions for line and utility apprentices in 10-day sessions, with a maximum of 62 people.
The Battle Ground training center will include all of the current training given to JATC apprentices, such as hands-on and classroom training for utility and tree-trimming apprentices, as well as the Vocational Outside Line Training Academy. The Academy, or VOLTA, is a pre-apprenticeship program in the outside electrical industry, which focuses on skills needed for electrical linemen, power line clearance tree trimmers and related fields.
To find out more about JATC and what the organization does, visit their website at www.nwlinejatc.com.
