Wednesday, September 26, 2007
PRCC students building parking lot in Hattiesburg

     HATTIESBURG - Students at Pearl River Community College’s Forrest County Center soon will have a new parking lot, thanks to fellow students from the Poplarville campus.
      Heavy equipment operation instructor Brad Ladner and eight students are turning a strip of land on the north side of the center into much-needed parking spaces.
      “We’re taking out old dirt and putting in good dirt,” Ladner said. “We’ll put crushed concrete on top of it.”
      The project provides great practical experience, said student David Gilmore of Poplarville.
      “I’ve learned a lot,” he said.
      A former sheriff’s deputy, Gilmore is taking advantage of the federal grant that provides free training.
      “I saw the opportunity and just wanted to try it,” he said.
      A record 1,600 students enrolled for the fall semester at the Forrest County Center, overwhelming existing parking spaces. The new lot will hold up to 100 spaces, said Clint Tapper, PRCC physical plant director.
      A planned expansion of the bookstore and Java Joe’s coffee shop has been delayed because students have to park temporarily on the grass where the expansion is to be built, said Dr. Cecil Burt, dean of the Forrest County Center.
      Turning the parking lot project over to Ladner and his students saved Pearl River $25,000 to $30,000, Tapper said. Ladner expects the lot to be completed in two weeks, depending on weather.
      The heavy equipment operation program is funded through a Department of Labor post-Hurricane Katrina grant along with donations from Huey Stockstill Inc. in Picayune and Puckett Equipment in Hattiesburg. For more information on the program, call 601 554-4646.