In the two years since Valparaiso’s train depot was moved to the Porter County Career and Technical Center campus, students have almost completed outside improvements to the building.
To help with the inside work, steel manufacturer ArcelorMittal presented center Director Jon Groth and his students with a $50,000 check in a short ceremony Aug. 30.
Grants from local businesses Task Force Tips and Urschel Laboratories have helped the vocational technology students gut the inside and improve the outside, Groth said.
“This will get us closer to the end,” Groth said.
However, the center is still seeking donors, as it has since it moved the 1912, 174-ton prairie-style building five blocks and made historical restoration an ongoing vocational education project.
“Without the community’s help and industry’s help, these things just don’t happen,” said Larry Fabina, manager of Continuous Improvements at ArcelorMittal.
The students understand the historical significance of the project.
“I like being a part of it. It means a lot to know what it will be,” said Dakota Watson, who attends Wheeler High School and plans to work in the trades two years before pursuing an architecture major.
James D. Wolf Jr. is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
