Weekly Review

News and Events from the campuses of Blinn College

Oct. 19, 2007

Blinn College Receives $1.98 Million Power Plant Grant

BRYAN – Blinn College accepted a nearly $2 million state grant to train workers for two power plant projects in the area. Texas Workforce Commission Chair Diane Rath presented the check on Oct. 19 to Blinn College, Fluor Corporation, and Becon Construction, a subsidiary of Bechtel Corporation. Blinn will administer the grant and share instruction responsibility with Texas State Technical College, Temple College, McLennan College, and Navarro College.

Photo (left to right): Brazos Valley Council of Governments (BVCOG) Executive Director Tom Wilkinson, Blinn College President Dr. Donald Voelter, Flour Corp. Manager of Craft Training Brenda Ketterman, TXU Manager of Community Relations Don Montgomery, Becon Construction Company Vice President Bob Deatherage, Blinn College Grants Director Dr. Milton Radke, Texas Workforce Commission Chair Diane Rath, and Blinn College Technical and Workforce Education Dean Guadalupe Reyes, Jr.

The $1,984,440 Texas Workforce Commission Skills Development grant will train 1,027 carpenters, masons, electricians, pipe fitters, welders, ironworkers, millwrights, boilermakers and other equipment operators. The grant creates 777 new jobs and upgrades 250 with an average hourly wage of $17.10.

The skilled workers will be employed by Fluor and Bechtel corporations, which are constructing the Oak Grove Power Plant in Robertson County and reconstructing the Sandow plant in Milam County. TXU's Luminant division will operate the coal-fired plants and plans to hire many of the workers trained under this grant after construction is completed. Others will continue working for the construction companies.

Blinn College, the oldest county-owned junior college in Texas, is entering its 125th year providing education services in south central Texas and currently ranks 11th in size among the 50 college districts in the state.

TXU, a Dallas-based energy company, manages a portfolio of competitive and regulated energy businesses primarily in Texas, including TXU Energy, Luminant, and Oncor.

Fluor, headquartered in Irving, is one of the world's largest publicly-owned engineering, procurement, construction, and maintenance services companies. Bechtel is a global engineering, construction and project management company headquartered in San Francisco.