Planned classes for the new Rock Valley Community College Advanced Technology Center include welding and other advanced manufacturing skills. | Stock Photo
Planned classes for the new Rock Valley Community College Advanced Technology Center include welding and other advanced manufacturing skills. | Stock Photo
Rock Valley College (RVC) and Belvidere Community Unit School District 100 are cooperating on plans to bring an Advanced Technology Center (ATC) to Boone County.
According to the Rockford Register Star, the college board of trustees voted 5-2 in favor of locating an ATC at the former Big Thunder Mall location. The building formerly housed a Shopko.
However, the approval does not finalize the deal for the Belvidere site, and the college administration will still need to negotiate the final agreement with the school district. The other two locations trustees decided against for the future ATC were both in Rockford.
RVC Board Chairman Patrick Murphy
| https://www.rockvalleycollege.edu/
One of those locations, the Stenstrom Center for Career Education, already plays host to welding and automotive classes for RVC, and was pitched as a location for the ATC by construction and development firm Stenstrom.
The other location discussed was promoted by the Greater Rockford Airport Authority (GRAA). The GPAA advocated for RVC establishing the ATC just to the north of the Chicago-Rockford International Airport campus on Kishwaukee Street.
The majority of trustees said that the airport location was their second choice, according the Register Star.
Subjects taught at the new center are expected to include welding, electronics and mechatronics, with the primary aim of training a local workforce for advanced manufacturing.
However, RVC Board Chairman Patrick Murphy told the Rockford Register Star that his “yes” vote came down to the cost benefit of selecting Belvidere. Murphy said that the money saved by locating in Belvidere could be invested into school programs in Rockford, where he noted that the low graduation rates are “shameful at best.”
Trustee Paul Gorski – who along with trustee Gloria Cudia made up the dissenting votes – was reported by the Register Star as saying he questions whether the cost estimates for the Belvidere site are accurate.
“Half of the price we’re talking bout is $2 million to buy the building,” Gorski said, according to the Register Star. “And everybody else came out with much higher build-out costs, so I’m not sure where they’re getting their estimates.”
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