NMCC program to offer students work experience

LIMESTONE – Brian 1 and Brian 2 could be poster boys for a new cooperative effort of Northern Maine Community College and the Maine Military Authority that will allow students to be interns at a repair facility to gain valuable work experience.

Actually, the two NMCC automotive-collision-repair program seniors, Brian Marquis of Bangor and Brian Hallowell of Edmunds, are full-time students who also work full time at the Maine Readiness Sustainment Maintenance Center at the Loring Commerce Centre.

Brian 1 and 2, as they are known at the repair facility, are not interns. Their day starts at 7:30 a.m. with classes at NMCC in Presque Isle and ends at 11:30 p.m. when they finish their shift at the Maine Military Authority facility in Limestone.

The new partnership allows the placement of NMCC students at the production facility. It also establishes the college as the provider of safety training for all authority employees.

For the Presque Isle college, it provides equipment for students to train on – like fiberglass hoods and industrial welding equipment.

“This works to help people develop new skills right here in Aroostook County,” Timothy Crowley, president of NMCC, said at a Thursday afternoon ceremony held to dedicate the program. “Our kids will become better workers by having the opportunity to learn from men on the job.

“They will learn better safety, what teamwork is, and learn to work with quality crews,” he said at the ceremony attended by about 120 employees of the facility. “We’re excited. It’s good for the kids, good for Aroostook County and good for the state.”

Crowley said the program will provide the facility with skilled workers.

The maintenance center also took the time to dedicate the first Humvee to roll off the recently added second-shift assembly line.

The maintenance center, which currently has 261 employees in eight buildings at the Loring Commerce Centre, repairs and refurbishes Humvees for an average cost of $21,300, compared to the replacement cost of $77,000.

They also repair Howitzers, cargo and tractor-trailer trucks, bulldozers, and even mobile-field-kitchen trailers for the U.S. Army National Guard, both those serving in the United States and those involved in the military’s global war on terror. They expect to refurbish 55 vehicles this year.