MPTC Breaks Ground On Energy Education Center

Moraine Park Technical College broke ground this week on its $2.3 million addition at their Beaver Dam campus for a new Energy Education Center. Once complete, students will be trained to serve industrial, commercial and residential customers in the natural gas, propane, and gas utilities industries. Moraine Park President Bonnie Baerwald says they hope the new center will help close the skills gap for qualified gas utility technicians. Brian Johnson is the Senior Executive Advisor with the Michels Corporation of Brownsville, which donated $125,000 to the project. He says the state-of-the-art facility will become a critical source of well-trained and knowledgeable skilled gas utility technicians. The new gas utility program will begin in June of next year with graduation in March of 2019 which Baerwald says is just in time for utilities to recruit for their busy summer.