'We're going to have to become a college town': PTCC president Mulford shares updates with county board

Pine Technical and Community College president Joe Mulford shared updates with the Pine County board at last week's meeting.

Mulford acknowledged the board and county staff for Pine County's recent trail expansion project, which he said has benefited PTCC.

"Those are amenities that make a difference for everybody," he said.

Mulford said Pine Tech's $25 million building expansion project — which includes about a 24,000 square-foot addition and over 15,000 square-foot renovation of existing space on campus — is anticipated to be finished by the end of May.

That work included an auto shop and gunsmithing and welding labs that opened this fall.

"Those are all up and running right now," Mulford said. "There are still a few loose ends that we're finishing up through the fall semester here, but that part of the project is completed."

Mulford added that the former gunsmithing lab will be remodeled into a health care simulation lab, and the former auto shop will be renovated into an automation lab.

"Arguably, every technical program that we have will either have brand new square footage, or reconfigured square footage," Mulford said. "It's been a massive project on top of what we're normally doing from day-to-day."

Mulford said he hopes the project "puts a retail front on technical education" — the labs have added glass fronts to allow onlookers a glance at what's going on inside.

Mulford also said adding student housing in 2024 was a game-changer for Pine Tech, when Pine City's Lakeside Medical Center was converted into dorm-style housing.

"That was the killer for us for a long time," he said.

Since opening student housing, Mulford said more prospective enrollees are becoming resident students.

"That's a completely new day for us," Mulford said.

According to Mulford, 70 percent of Pine Tech's students come from within about a 45-mile radius of the school.

Mulford said 2025 saw about 50 students residing in the housing, with a capacity of 150.

"I think for our region, too, one of the things I don't want us to do is recruit, retain, train, and then ship back to Alexandria these really highly-skilled nurses and welders," Mulford said. "Let's keep them."

In May, Pine Tech held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a student recreation center located at the former Fairview clinic on 2nd Street Southeast.

"We have been a town with a college," Mulford said. "And we're going to have to become a college town as we see more and more students populate that housing."