Peoples Gas, North Shore Gas Break Ground on New Training Center

Chicago, IL - Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas broke ground on a $20 million, state-of-the-art, training center for natural gas utility workers in Little Village this week.

The training center will bring “dozens” of jobs to the area, according to a news release, and prepare students at Chicago Public Schools for careers in that line of work.

“When we break ground on this new training center, we are breaking ground on new futures for Chicagoans and new opportunities for our students,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who joined officials from Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas as well as 22nd Ward Ald. Ricardo Munoz for the groundbreaking on Wednesday. “This training center will give our utility workers cutting-edge training while preparing our students for good careers in the utility industry."

The center, at 4228 W. 35th Place, will include an indoor training area with five classrooms, five practical training areas, a computer simulation lab and a 75-seat meeting room available to local community groups as well as an outdoor training area that will include a mock “Gas City” with a fully functioning natural gas delivery system and 20 structures for training in system maintenance and gas leak investigation. It will be the largest natural gas mock city training site in Illinois.

The 100,000 square foot facility will provide annual training to more than 1,600 utility workers.

In addition to training current Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas employees, the center will prepare Chicago high school students for careers as utility workers through a vocational training program with Chicago Public Schools. It will help students train for potential jobs with Peoples Gas when they graduate, according to the release.

“Our new training center will allow Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas to maintain our excellent record of safety and reliability by providing advanced training in best practices for our employees,” North Shore Gas President and CEO Charles Matthews said. “Just as important, our new vocational partnership with Chicago Public Schools will help us build for the future as we prepare for a large portion of our workforce to retire and a new generation of workers to begin their careers.”

Photo: Peoples Gas and North Shore Gas President and CEO Charles Matthews joined Mayor Rahm Emanuel, 22nd Ward Ald. Ricardo Munoz and other local officials and community leaders this week to break ground on the utilities’ new $20 million, 100,000-plus-square-foot, state-of-the-art, training center in Little Village. Also pictured are Lori Flores Rolfson, Operations and Maintenance, Peoples Gas & North Shore (far right) and Todd Pressley, Vice President, Ujamaa Construction (far left). Submitted by Peoples Gas