In their meeting Tuesday, the Brownwood Municipal Development District Board of Directors approved funding for welding training through Central Texas Opportunities.   The funding must now go before Brownwood City Council for final approval on May 14.

The amount approved was $21,076 and will help train welders for employment by a local company.  “We’ve been working with Central Texas Opportunities for several months on this.  They are receiving a grant from the Texas Workforce Commission specifically for welding training,” said Ray Tipton, Executive Director of Brownwood Municipal Development District.  “One of our employers, Barr Fabrication, has expressed a need for quite a few welders, so this course is being put together to give them first priority to get some welders trained so they can get them hired and get them to work,” Tipton said.

The grant from the Workforce Commission does not cover the entire cost of the welding course so the funding approved by the BMDD board covers the gap the Workforce Commission grant didn’t provide.

“Ultimately it will train 22 new welders and hopefully all of them will get hired at Barr Fabrication,” Tipton said.

The welding training would be done at Brownwood High School through the program that Ranger College has for welding training.

The Brownwood City Council must now approve the BMDD Board action for the program to proceed.