AN ACT to appropriate funds for edgecombe Community college to support a new training and recruitment center.

Whereas, Edgecombe Community College (ECC) is constructing a new Training and Recruitment Center (Center) to provide training facilities and to support industry growth for a sustainable pipeline of candidates to enter into existing and new jobs within the advanced manufacturing sector; and

Whereas, the Center will support ECC's industry partners, including Triangle Tire, Corning, and Carolina Connector, through the Carolinas Gateway Partnership, a public‑private industrial recruitment agency dedicated to the economic development of the Eastern North Carolina counties of Nash and Edgecombe; and

Whereas, 2,650 new jobs have been added to the Twin Counties Region of Nash and Edgecombe Counties, with approximately 2,500 jobs currently open and an estimate of 3,450 jobs that will need to be filled and on the market in the next 18 to 24 months; and

Whereas, the Center shall be a 32,000 square foot facility that will provide as part of its mission at least the following:

(1)        An employment office for jobs recruiting.

(2)        A major meeting facility.

(3)        A recruiting tool for the remaining 1,600 acres at the Kingsboro Mega Site.

(4)        Unique training, recruiting, and meeting opportunities; and

Whereas, the Center will support workforce development growth in the Raising Awareness of Manufacturing Possibilities (RAMP) East Service workforce development region by providing services at the Center to Edgecombe County and nine other surrounding counties, including Alexander, Washington, Northampton, Hertford, Camden, Currituck, Chowan, Perquimans, and Pasquotank Counties, and Edgecombe Community College and eight other community colleges, including College of the Albemarle, Nash Community College, Wilson Community College, Halifax Community College, Martin Community College, Pitt Community College, Roanoke‑Chowan Community College, and Beaufort County Community College; and

Whereas, Edgecombe County contributed 14 acres of land owned by the county; and

Whereas, Edgecombe County received a Golden L.E.A.F. Foundation Grant of $10 million for the construction of the Center; and

Whereas, State funds are necessary for the project to obtain the equipment needed for the operation of the Center; Now, therefore,

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Community Colleges System Office the sum of two million five hundred thousand dollars ($2,500,000) in nonrecurring funds for the 2021‑2022 fiscal year to be allocated to Edgecombe Community College to provide for equipment for training and meeting room audiovisual activities to complete construction of a new Training and Recruitment Center.

SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2021.