Local officials, state dignitaries and community leaders and community members showed their pride Friday as they gathered at the old Walmart building on Highway 19 North to dedicate a new workforce center.

Nearly 11 years after buying the old Walmart building, Meridian Community College has transformed it into the MCC-Riley Workforce Development Center.

“I think the advent of this facility marks a major step forward in economic development for our community and the region,” Meridian Community College President Scott Elliott said. “It gives us a place to showcase to new industry what we have in terms of capacity for workforce training.

“That’s got to make a huge difference because as we try to recruit new industry to our community they are going to want to be assured we can muster a well trained viable workforce.”

The MCC-Riley Workforce Development Center will be a facility with career and technology programs for the school that offers structured formal training to help train citizens for the workforce, said Stanley Bishop, the industrial maintenance instructor at the facility.

“Skills tradespeople now have to have formal training,” Bishop said. “It used to be you could learn it at home or learn by working on other things. Now you have to have formal training to be able to take care of the equipment that’s in the manufacturing facilities.

“We use components in our training that are compatible with what industry has,” he said. “We can train people to move into those well-paying skilled jobs in this facility.”

The 81,000-square-foot facility was renovated at cost of $7.2 million, according to the college. It includes a 12,000-square-foot welding shop, 15 classrooms and five shop laboratories. Classrooms range from 16 to 250 in student capacity. There are 19 offices, a state-of-the-art multi-media conference room and a commercial grade catering kitchen, among other amenities, according to a college news release.

The Mississippi Community College System is ranked top notch in the nation, which Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant said, contributes to the state’s lowering unemployment rates.

“We are at 5.2 percent unemployment,” Bryant said during his speech. “That is as low as it’s been since 2001 and it is a credit to community colleges who are leading workforce development – particularly here at Meridian Community College.

The workforce is key, Bryant said, with the facility helping to train plumbers, electricians and diesel mechanic technicians – these are all jobs corporations are looking for.

“Corporations are looking for the best-trained workers that they can find, and we want to be the on time workforce,” Bryant said. “As I tell people we are going to win through people.

“The old Walmart reminds me of the crab that found the perfect shell to live in. That is what we have found – the perfect shell to be a workforce training center for the future.”

Elliott said the center would have never come to fruition without the support of the Riley Foundation, the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors, Tommy Dulaney and the Economic Development Administration, a federal agency that helps with local economic development.