To the editor,
I am writing in favor of Measure 33-111. This measure will support CGCC's efforts to educate our local workforce, a task I have had the pleasure of aiding for the past 13 years in the Gorge. It has not been an easy task, but throughout my entire career in education after leaving industry myself, CGCC has played a vital role supporting the entire Columbia River Gorge with low-cost quality education. My educational career started at The Dalles High School, where I taught automotive and later welding classes. Even then, CGCC provided immense support of trades education, collaborating and even hosting TDHS Welding and Fabrication classes on their campus before they even offered for-credit courses themselves. They could be relied on to share their equipment and supplies and to connect me- a newcomer to the gorge in 2011, to local industry.
Over time, CGCC's programs grew and improved. I am now proud to be an instructor in the Advanced Manufacturing and Fabrication AAS degree pathway at CGCC. We've been fortunate to bring in high quality equipment, and make it accessible to local startups, innovators, hobbyists, businesses and of course our students. Through economic development partnerships with the National Institute of Standards and Technology and Oregon Manufacturing Extension Partnership, the AM&F program has kept $382,000 in our region. This is money that would have normally been sent outside to places like Southern California.
Measure 33-111 is a great way to support work like this, not just for students and our future workforce, but also for direct return on investment into our community. Not only does it not raise our taxes, but it provides matching funding from outside the Gorge to the sum of $5.5 million dollars. This funding is crucial in several simple, and several more complex ways. Firstly, one tangible benefit to the work that I do, is that there are plans to create a parking lot at our very busy building. Currently, we serve about 60 people daily- and we have three parking spots, only one of which is handicap/ADA accessible. There are many other projects around campus that are deferred maintenance or neglected because of funding. An investment like this is much like an investment in to an oil change on your car- it's far cheaper to spend the money now, than to spend it later on a whole new engine. One of the more complex ways that the funding pays a big dividend on your vote is by allowing CGCC to pay off it's debt for the Skills Center in full, saving lots of money on future interest payments. Without that debt and it's maintenance, year over year budget is greatly freed up for safety and health upgrades, as well as simple livability like above. As the college continues to grow, it would even give capacity to expand programming in to areas like agriculture, which in my view is much needed in our area.
I hope you will join me in voting YES on Measure 33-111.
Sincerely,
Robert Wells-Clark
The Dalles, Wasco County
