Need to land some jobs? Go back to school

By Ann Knoedler

On Nov. 2, 2010, the Madison Area Technical College presented an eye-popping $133,770,000 district-wide building plan referendum to voters — and it passed!

Bids for the first project, the Health Education Building in Madison, were opened last August with other projects in the building plan bidding in quick succession with more to follow.

This is a large district: MATC has eight campuses within the city of Madison, plus four regional campuses in Portage, Reedsburg, Watertown and Fort Atkinson. The district is also implementing a rebranding effort, changing their name to Madison College. In fact proposals are due Friday for the services necessary to change the college’s public domain name from matcmadison.com to madisoncollege.edu.

• Fox Valley Technical College is taking a building plan to referendum this April 3 seeking voter approval to spend $66.5 million for expansion projects that will occur primarily in Appleton, plus a small addition in Chilton. If approved, the money will also go toward the purchase of land next to its Oshkosh campus for future growth.

The district has campuses in Appleton, Oshkosh, and five regional centers in Chilton, Waupaca, Clintonville, Wautoma and Neenah.

• Contractors should mark their calendars for these Wisconsin technical college bid opportunities in February:

1. Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College has two projects bidding Feb. 14 for its New Richmond campus: Renovations to a pre-engineered metal building, Power Equipment Center estimated at $1.2 million and an addition and remodel to the main campus building estimated at $2.2 million.

2. Nicolet Area Technical College will open bids Feb. 16 for three remodeling projects at the Lake Julia Campus University Transfer Center in Rhinelander. Each remodel project is estimated at $1.5 million.

3. Moraine Park Technical College is receiving bids Feb. 16 for a Student Life remodel and library addition on its Beaver Dam campus.

The Wisconsin Technical College System is 100 years old. And I was impressed to find out that Wisconsin was the first state to set up such a system, with that honor going to Racine (Gateway Technical College).

Wisconsin now has 16 technical college districts in the system: Blackhawk, Chippewa Valley, Fox Valley, Gateway, Lakeshore, Madison Area, Mid-State, Milwaukee Area, Moraine Park, Nicolet Area, Northcentral, Northeast Wisconsin, Southwest Wisconsin, Waukesha County, Western Wisconsin, and Indianhead.

Ann Knoedler is the lead data reporter at The Daily Reporter. Get the latest bidding information 24/7 on JobTrac’s new website at dailyreporter.com/jobtrac.

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