New "Hillsboro" Sign is Up

I just have to brag about persistence. There is a new billboard sign on Highway 50 telling the world how to get to Hillsboro.

Most folks remember the former sign was broken down and needed to be replaced. The Chamber of Commerce was responsible for its maintenance and keeping the rents coming. When the director resigned this spring, Clint Seibel, Executive Director Hillsboro Development Corporation, took up the cause to get the sign rebuilt. The old sign had to be removed. A design needed to be developed. A new agreement needed to be reached with the land owner. Funds needed to be raised for the construction and printing of the new sign. An application needed to be approved by the Kansas Department of Transportation before construction could be started. Clint worked on this over 8 months. Now it is done. It looks great.

Hillsboro’s New Welding Program

The third of this year's economic development projects came to life yesterday. The new welding program under the guidance of Butler Community College (El Dorado) started class with five students. The program is to train new welders to meet the needs of our two trailer manufacturers. Read and watch the Wichita Channel 12 report here. There is a video clip there too.

This project started early this year with the idea of having a ready resource of welding talent in the Hillsboro/Marion County area. Recruiting welders to the two trailer manufacturing businesses was tough given the strength of the US Dollar helping nearby AGCO in Hesston. They were hiring everybody they could so they could build farm machinery for sale overseas. Our local businesses wanted to expand their operations but the supply of trained workers was very small. The answer was to build a training center where folks could be trained, get a nationally recognized certificate and have an industry ready to hire the best students in the class.

To make the situation work, local industry met with the City of Hillsboro Butler Community College and representatives of the Kansas Department of Commerce. All these folks had their hand in making this program start. Hillsboro Industries manager, Phil Wyssenbeck, sits on a Department of Commerce Work Force Development Council. His efforts brought the Department of Commerce to the table. This gave access to a $100,000 grant to purchase equipment for the classroom. The City of Hillsboro had space in the AMPI building that was large enough for both the shop and the classroom.

Once all the details were worked out, City of Hillsboro staff and contractors began a short timeline project to get everything ready for the first day of class. We had to reroof the portion of the building to be used by the program, add heating and air-conditioning, rebuild one of the dairy work rooms into a classroom with a teacher's office, replace doors to meet current industry standards, and install air a make-up system so welding fumes can be exhausted.

The objective is to train 15 students at a time in the program in 8 week sessions. This class started with five. It is a great start. Now we will nurture it and help it grow.