LOCAL

Dow donates to Westside's Industrial Maintenance program

Staff Writer

Plaquemine Post South

Tom Bradley of The Dow Chemical Co. and Will Seaman, Construction Program director for BRCC, stand in front of one of the trailer loads of equipment donated to the BRCC Westside Campus Industrial Maintenance program recently.

PLAQUEMINE - The Industrial Maintenance program at the new BRCC Westside campus got a huge boost in making it the "royal standard" among industrial maintenance programs in Louisiana recently when The Dow Chemical Co. donated approximately $500,000 in new and used plant equipment.

The donation includes huge pallets of fittings, valves, meters, flanges, seals, gaskets, a fitting table, containers and more.

"This donation greatly enhances our ability to effectively teach the students, and allows them to work hands-on with real life equipment like the equipment they will see in the plants," said Will Seaman, Program Director of construction education for BRCC. "This is equipment we could not afford to purchase under our normal operating budget so students don't typically have the hands-on training this will provide. With this equipment this site should be the benchmark industrial maintenance educational program in the state. This facility is state-of-the-art."

Seaman noted that the mixture of new and used equipment was ideal because often technicians will work with older equipment at plants.

"Just the valves are worth $400 each, and we have a pallet full of them," he said.

The Industrial Maintenance program at the new BRCC Westside campus has benefitted tremendously from the Industry Committee, which includes representatives of local chemical plants and industry contractor companies, including The Dow Chemical Co., Axiall, ISC Constructors, Jacobs, Shintech, Turner Industries and Westgate Electrical & Instrumentation. The committee's promotion of the first instrumentation and electrical classes was largely responsible for the large first classes at the new campus. The program also offers pipefitting and millwright courses.

"We were very excited to make this donation to the Industrial Maintenance program," said Tom Bradley of The Dow Chemical Co., who arranged the donation and is chairman of the Industry Committee. "This will go a long way in helping the program to produce top notch craftsmen for local industry."

For information on the Industrial Maintenance program at the Westside campus go to www.mybrcc.edu/aps/cont_ed_payment/, call the campus office at 225-687-5500 or go to the campus on Tenant Road behind Plaquemine High School.