Friday, December 14, 2007
John Deere-Stribling help PRCC double equipment training program

     POPLARVILLE - When the heavy equipment operators program at Pearl River Community College resumes after the Christmas break, twice as many students will be enrolled.
      The John Deere Corp. and Stribling Equipment presented four pieces of heavy equipment today to the program as a part of a lease-loan arrangement. The equipment is valued at $750,000.
      “This program is just fantastic,” said David House, southern district sales manager for Stribling. “It’s going to fill a very big need.”
      The program started after Hurricane Katrina created tremendous demand for heavy equipment operators, said Scott Alsobrooks, director of Workforce Education at PRCC.
      Donations of $100,000 from Huey Stockstill Inc. in Picayune, $50,000 from Puckett Machinery and $50,000 from the Caterpillar Foundation along with four pieces of Caterpillar equipment got the training started.
      “The equipment you see here will help us add capactiy to our program and increase the training,” Alsobrooks said.
      John Deere and Stribling provided a motor grader, dozer, wheel loader and mini-excavator.
      “There’s a shortage of qualified operators for the construction industry,” House said. “At the urging of Huey Stockstill Jr., we got with John Deere and decided to do it.”
      Student Ross Gaudet of Hattiesburg demonstrated the excavator during today’s presentation.
      “It’s just tremendous that they stepped in,” he said.
      Twelve students enrolled in the heavy equipment program will train with the new equipment and 11 students in the electrical utility technology program also will use some of it, Alsobrooks said. The new equipment will allow 12 students from the waiting list of more than 100 to start heavy equipment training next year.
      “We’re real excited about the opportunity this equipment and this program are going to provide for our students and our college,” said PRCC President William Lewis.