South Georgia Technical College President Dr. John Watford awarded certificates to the participants in the SGTC Crisp County Center’s Motor Grader Operator Skills Training session. Nineteen individuals from Crisp, County, Dooly, Sumter, and Turner Counties participated in the classroom and/or safety and skills Motor Grader training.
SGTC Caterpillar lead instructor Kyle Hartsfield conducted the classroom portion of the workshop and Antoyo Tucker, City of Sparks Road Superintendent from Cook County taught all of the skills classes. The safety portion of the classes were held on March 8th and then a skills session in Cook County was held on May 18th. Two skills sessions on the Crisp/Dooly line were held on June 15th where Sumter County joined in and then another skills session was held on June 22nd in Turner County.
The classroom session covered the areas of pre-site inspection, machine safety, daily equipment/maintenance, liability issues, road hazards, and operator station monitor. After the classroom session, the group participated in the practical/”hands-on” portion of the workshop.
South Georgia Technical College partnered with the Crisp County Board of Commissioners to be able to offer the training. “The Crisp County Board of Commissioners is pleased to play a role in the development of a Heavy Equipment Training Course for public works in Georgia. This partnerships with South Georgia Technical College made this idea a reality. The opportunity is available for cities, counties, and the private sector to benefit the employee training in areas of equipment operations, safety, and maintenance,” said Clark Harrell, County Administrator, Crisp County Board of Commissioners.
Harrell also thanked “the commissioners, administrators, and public works directors from Dooly, Worth, Turner, Cook, Irwin, Sumter, Crisp and the Association of County Commissioners of Georgia for their involvement in the development of this South Georgia Technical College certificate course.”
Participating in one or both parts of the training were: Crisp County – Loran Hayslip, Jr., Michael Morris, Doug Stewart, Hubbard Odom and Charles Mozo; Cook County – Scottie Brady, Andrew Griffin, Christopher Swain, and Antoyo Tucker; Dooly County – Toriano Felder, Coley Smith, and Timothy Woodson; Turner County – Howard Burgess, Kevin Kimkowski, Warren Lewis, John Tilley, Bill Thompkins; Sumter County – Jamie McCord and Gregory West.
Attending the safety portion of the workshop were: Toriano Felder, Doug Stewart, Coley Smith and Bill Thompkins. Howard Burgess, Jamie McCord, Hubbard Odom and Christopher Swain attended the skills portion and completing both the safety and skills portion of the workshop were: Scottie Brady, Andrew Griffin, Loran Hayslip, Jr., Kevin Kimkowski, Warren Lewis, Michael Morris, Charles, Moo, John Tilley, Antoyo Tucker, Gregory West, and Timothy Woodson.
The motor grader workshop is part of South Georgia Technical College’s commitment to training and educating a skilled workforce ready to fulfill the needs of business and industry in the college’s service area and beyond.
For more information about Economic Development Services at South Georgia Technical College contact SGTC Cordele Director of Business and Industry Services Michelle McGowan at mmcgowan@southgatech.edu or SGTC Americus Director of Business and Industry Services Paul Farr at pfarr@southgatech.edu .
