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The TCAT Jacksboro campus was built in 1967, with classes starting in January 1968
By Charlotte Underwood
JACKSBORO, TN (WLAF)- The Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT) broke ground on its new $55.5 million dollar facility on Wednesday, December 4th at noon.
The 96,000 square foot facility will “more than double” the technical college’s size from its current 48,000 square feet and will provide room for additional programs and student growth.
WLAF’s Charlie Hutson shares his photo gallery HERE.
Tennessee State Representative Dennis Powers (above), as well as the Tennessee Board of Regents Chancellor Dr. Flora Tydings, and multiple TCAT and local community leaders were present for the “hallmark moment.”
TCAT Jacksboro President Debbie Petree spoke at the groundbreaking ceremony.
The $55.5 million dollar project is part of the overall $1 billion dollar investment that Governor Bill Lee and state legislation approved for TCAT’s across the state last year.
“We are so fortunate. I want to especially thank Senator Ken Yager and State Representative Dennis Powers for all they do for higher education,” Petree said, adding that “from a local perspective Campbell County is blessed to have two institutions of higher education.”
The TCAT Jacksboro campus was built in 1967, with classes starting in January 1968.
“Since that time, we have served hundreds and maybe thousands of students that have gained skills to go get high wage, high demand jobs. All of the accomplishments to date and all of those to come are not the work of one person, but an entire team. We have had three amazing leaders before me and numerous faculty and staff. Our team everyday goes above and beyond to serve our students and our employers,” Petree said.
Other TCAT Presidents and college staff were present, as was members of the Tennessee Board of Regents, along with local school partners, and business leaders.
Faculty Regent Angela Richardson spoke briefly as a representative of the Board of Regents, saying she was “honored to help launch this exciting project.”
“This expansion will house more than just new buildings, new offices and new classrooms; this expansion will allow TCAT Jacksboro to continue doing what they have done for the last 55 years, and that is to produce graduates who are going to play a major role in meeting the workforce demands of this community, they will have a positive impact on this community’s economy,” Richardson said.
State Representative Dennis Powers said he “was excited and proud” to be a part of the groundbreaking and that he could remember when the TCAT Jacksboro building was built.”
“I was a freshman in high school when this was built, so I remember the good days and the bad days and all the things that have come in and they have continued to upgrade and put more programs in and do a lot of things for our community and we can’t thank them enough for doing that. You wonder how many students since 1968 have gone through here and how many more will go through here in the future and it is amazing to think that we have that kind of training and that availability here in our county and now that we’re doubling in size, that just makes it that much more exciting,” Powers said.
He thanked Chancellor Tydings for her support.
“She has always been so supportive of everything that we have been doing, and she has helped so much…Because of her and Governor Lee and the legislature and the billion dollars we put forth, we know this is a priority and we have made TCAT a priority this year. Because we know that companies that come to us, they want a trained workforce and that’s what TCAT offers here,” Powers said.
She spoke briefly about the $1 billion dollar investment into TCATS across the state.
“Two years ago, I got a call from the governor’s office, and they said they knew we had some projects in the books, and they knew we had put together a portfolio thanks to Dick Tracy and they wanted us to send the project portfolio over,” Tydings said.
Dick Tracy is an Executive Director, for Facilities Development at the Tennessee Board of Regents.
“We kept trying to get buildings built and finally about five years ago, we said let’s put them all together in one book so that we can show people what we’re talking about, what the huge need is across the state and so he built our portfolio. The governor’s office called and said they wanted to see it, of course we took it over right away, in my mind, I’m thinking we will be lucky to get one, two, three, maybe four of the 29 that were in the book,” Tydings said.
It was the week before Christmas when she got the phone call from the governor’s office, saying they were going to fund all 29 projects in the book.
Chancellor Tydings gave the closing statement at Wednesday’s groundbreaking ceremony.
“We cannot thank the governor enough for doing that and we cannot thank our legislators enough for deciding that this was really important and putting it into the budget… The mission statement for TBR is very succinct; it is student success and workforce development and that’s what this is going to be providing, these are not just buildings, this is not just trying to make our campuses look better. These are functional buildings where people will be coming and learning a skill that will provide for them, that will provide for their family for a lifetime to come, we are changing the face of what happens in the state of Tennessee. We will have companies coming to look at us because we will be providing the best trained workforce that this country could ever provide with state-of-the art facilities that are being designed by our architects, not for a one time, not for a 25-year time, but for a lifetime. The buildings will be flexible, they will be adaptable because we don’t know what it looks like for training in 25 years …We are not designing for the past, we have designed for the future.” (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-12/05/2024-6AM-PHOTOS COURTESY OF WLAF’S CHARLIE HUTSON)