Shane Simmons, welding and cutting technology instructor and program coordinator at MCC, on Friday (right) shows Mississippi Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves one of the new welding machines in the Structural Steel Welding Technology Center building on the Workforce Education campus at MCC.

    An idea that began with an economic development summit on the campus of Alabama Southern Community College in June, 2007 came to fruition in Meridian Friday.

    At the 2007 summit, then-Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and Alabama Gov. Bob Riley spoke about the need for more workforce education and welders, specifically, to educators and administrators from seven West Alabama and East Mississippi community colleges, including Meridian Community College, East Central Community College, East Mississippi Community College, Jones County Junior College, Bevill State Community College, Shelton State Community College and Wallace State Community College (Selma).

    On Friday, Reeves spoke at the dedication of MCC’s Structural Steel Services Welding Technology Center.

     The facility will enable MCC to more than triple its capacity to train welding students, school officials said.

    “When we talk about education, we shouldn’t just talk about K through 12,” Reeves told the crowd of about 250 at the ribbon cutting. “Education also means to train our workforce and we can do that through facilities like this. This facility is a shining example of what Meridian and East Mississippi can do when people put their minds together.”

    B.B. Archer was the architect for the 11,500-square foot welding facility, which will have 30 working welding booths, classrooms, office and a 3-ton overhead crane.

    “The crane enables us to teach rigging,” welding and cutting technology instructor and program coordinator Shane Simmons said. “Some programs have to skip that part because there’s no way to teach it, but the crane will enable us to teach more students how to operate it hands on.”

    Tony Dean with Structural Steel helped design the facility to give it a real-world factory feel.

    Classes in the building are set to begin Monday, Simmons said.

    The $1.5 million building was donated by 31-year college trustee Tommy Dulaney. Lauderdale County paid for the building’s equipment, erection and addition.

    “This was really a community project,” Elliott said. “A lot of different people and agencies came together to make this happen. I think the (Reeves) is right, if we could replicate that model on a lot of things in our community, we’d keep moving forward.”