Iowa Central Community College President Dr. Jesse Ulrich spends a lot of time meeting with business and community leaders across the nine-county area the school serves.

And when he meets with them, he constantly hears about the need for more nurses, more welders, and more people trained to work on heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, plus other occupations.

Iowa Central has trained people to work in those fields for decades. But now, according to Ulrich, it is running out of space to train all the people needed to meet the growing demands of the region.

That, he said, is why the college is asking the voters to extend an existing borrowing authority so it can invest $35 million in facilities and equipment needed to train more people in the fields that are in the highest demand in the region.

The bond issue extension will be on the Nov. 4 general election ballot. It must be approved by 60 percent of those voting in order to go into effect.

Ulrich likes to stress these three things when he speaks about the proposal:

There is no property tax increase. Homeowners will continue to pay the roughly $25 a year they are already paying to retire the college’s bond debt..

All the money will go toward workforce training in high demand areas.

The college has been a good steward of previous bond issue money, he said.

“This is a good investment when trying to recruit people to our region,” he said.

He said 77 percent of Iowa Central graduates stay in the nine-county area that includes Buena Vista, Calhoun, Greene, Hamilton, Humboldt, Pocahontas, Sac, Webster and Wright counties.

He said that the proposal would train people in needed skills who are likely to stay in the area. And since it relies on the extension of an existing levy, its financial impact on taxpayers is limited.

The current challenge

While the need exists for more trained workers, Iowa Central currently does not have the capacity to train them.

“Most of those programs are limited in space,” Ulrich said. “This isn’t just upgrading some buildings, it’s expanding space so we can take on more students.”

As an example, he cited the college’s dental hygiene program. It is capped at 15 students per year simply because there is no room to teach any more than that. But the program has 50 applicants seeking to get in.

The new veterinary technician program, launched last year, is in a similar fix. There is already a waiting list of people hoping to be admitted to it.

The proposal includes a new Center for Ag Science and significant renovations to the Applied Science and Technology Building that will create room to expand both of those programs and others.

If approved, bond issue money will also be spent on renovations and equipment upgrades at the college’s centers in Webster City and Storm Lake.