The time has arrived! The ribbon cutting for the new UBTech Welding Technology Building is being held today. Although the project came together fairly quickly for a project of its size it was still quite an endeavor. As the acclaim of UBTech welding program continued to grow and the students brought back numerous awards, it was apparent to UBTech President Aaron Weight that a new building was necessary. “They might not know where we are located,” said Weight, “but they know who we are and what kind of welders we produce.” Plans for a stand-alone welding building began in 2016. It can easily take 10 years to get a building like this built, but with the support of several local elected state officials and the professional experts, things came together quickly. Gramoll Construction presented a “design build” project that committed to use as many local subcontractor as possible. That turned out to be 50-70 local employees. “We tried to spread the dollars throughout the community,” said Troy North, Gramoll Construction manager. “We ate at local diners and stayed in the local hotels. We really had this community in our minds throughout this project.” On top of that they were able to develop a partnership between UBTech, Miller Electric Manufacturing, Inc., and Norco Inc that allowed the new facility to be connected to welding companies. The agreement also provides scholarship for welding students as well as state-of-the-art equipment to the new facility. The ribbon cutting is taking place today (Thursday, March 21st) at the Welding Technology Building on the Roosevelt UBTech campus
starting at 2:30pm
.
