By Esteban Fernandez
For Times West Virginian
FAIRMONT — Out of the new promise an aviation maintenance facility holds, Marion County School Superintendent Donna Heston loved one message the most.
“This is generational change for West Virginia,” she said. “I loved that message today. For so many of our students, they are not aware of the opportunities that are here. And to see the work of all of these individuals and companies and partners that have collaborated to make this possible, that gives me hope.”
Pierpont Community and Technical College broke ground Wednesday afternoon on its long-awaited aviation maintenance classroom facility. The facility will give the school’s aviation maintenance training program the ability to expand from 130 students to 230. Demand for workers has grown among the businesses at the AeroTech Park in Bridgeport where the new facility is being built.
The legislature appropriated $25 million for the facility in 2023. However, reaching actual build status was a complicated affair Pierpont Board of Governors Chair David Hinkle hinted at in his remarks during the ceremony.
“It seems like it’d be a simple project, but I think it’s one of the few times where the legislature gave $25 million to one institution for one project,” Hinkle said. “That was a big ask, and the rest of the state took notice. Richard Forren with Omni, had the job, didn’t have the job — had the job — didn’t have the job. Richard’s calling me weekends, asking if we’re ever going to build this. They got to the point where even he was, ‘I’m not sure it was ever going to happen.’”
At the new North Central West Virginia Airport terminal grand opening celebration in August, Hinkle said the facility had become a political football, with other interests trying to intercept money from the project.
Sarah Tucker, chancellor of the West Virginia Community and Technical College System and Higher Education Policy Commission, leaned into the generational change the new facility will provide. She said Pierpont’s expanded ability to produce airframe and powerplant technicians will open global opportunities to West Virginians.
“Suddenly, that young West Virginian is going to Dubai to help a grounded corporate jet or helicopter back into the air, or South Africa, Paris, London, Switzerland, India, the Philippines, Malaysia or even the North Sea,” she said. “Think about that kind of transformation. A student can begin right here in Pierpont, build a career in West Virginia and develop skills valuable enough to take them around the world.”
Heston said Pierpont has started planting seeds where aviation is concerned at Marion County Schools. Aviation as a career is one that is explored beginning at the middle school level, she said, with pockets of students who choose that field’s opportunities when they graduate from high school or pursue dual credit courses while in high school. Heston said she’d like to see aviation reach saturation with students.
“To expand those opportunities for our students, to be able to keep them here, in West Virginia, to train them here, I think that was an exciting message,” Heston said.
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