Eastern Gateway will use Choffin space
By Denise Dick
YOUNGSTOWN
Eastern Gateway Community College will use three rooms at Choffin Career and Technical Center to launch its welding program and a machining lab.
Stephen Stohla, interim city schools superintendent, said the school board’s attorney is reviewing the lease, and the board is expected to vote on it this month.
“They’re starting a welding program and are upgrading welding equipment,” he said. “Our students will be able to use the equipment during the day when Eastern Gateway isn’t using it.”
Stohla declined to discuss lease terms until the agreement goes before the board.
Jerry Klinesmith, dean of business, engineering and IT at EGCC, said the college will lease three rooms in Choffin: two for welding and one for a machining program.
“We’re putting half a million dollars in [welding] equipment in there,” he said. “It will be a nice welding lab. We’ll plan on being there for some time.”
The machining lab will start in January at Choffin and eventually move to the old Vindicator building downtown, now owned by the Youngstown Business Incubator.
The goal is to create a manufacturing center. That’s a collaboration among EGCC, the Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition, Youngstown State University, the Mahoning County Educational Service Center and Austintown and Struthers schools. A feasibility study, which will include recommendations for a location, is under way.
The state Controlling Board last July approved a $50,000 grant to fund a feasibility study for the center.
The college received $2.5 million from the U.S. Department of Labor to develop a new manufacturing training center. Another $1 million grant will fund the creation of manufacturing training programs.
Stohla called it a win-win.
“We get money for rooms that aren’t being used until we come up with a plan to use them,” he said.
The college, meanwhile, gets to use the space it needs.