- [Narrator] And welcome to the upper Cumberland camera.

Tonight, we'll learn about college courses to be offered at night this fall by Tennessee technological university.

And we'll have an update on the proposed abandonment of the railroad line from Donaldson to Monterrey.

First tonight, we'll go to the upper Cumberland development district which is offering an on the job training program consisting of subcontracting with private employers to train participants in new skills.

Mary Robbins ombudsman for older workers says the main advantage of the program is that the employer can be reimbursed for up to 50% of the participants wage during the negotiated training period.

- We're really excited about the elder workers program Steve It is basically for older workers who are aged 55 and older, who meet the income guidelines.

And we have a lot of older people in the upper Cumberland area I think, who can benefit from this program and in the program, we provide job training where it's needed and employment opportunities for people that otherwise might not have a chance for a job.

- [Steve] What age people are we talking about?

- 55 and older.

- [Steve] And you train these people to do work.

- Yes, some people we do have training opportunities for other people go directly into jobs.

- [Steve] And how does somebody get involved in the program?

- All right, to get involved in the program a person who is age 55 and older and feels that he might meet the income eligibility requirements, needs to contact us, he or she could contact either myself here at the upper Cumberland development district.

And the number here is 4 3 2 4 1 1 1 or that person might contact Theresa Googlsby at the upper Cumberland human resources agency.

And Theresa's number is 5 3 7 6 5 4 2 and we will refer that person to their local job service office.

The job service office of the Tennessee department of employment security for certification.

And from that point on the person then is referred by job service to the UCHRA for assessment and testing.

And from that point on, then we would know what that person or what their skills are, what their talents would be and into what sort of job or what sort of training it would be most beneficial for them to go.

- [Steve] So exactly what are the requirements?

You mentioned, eligibility, income eligibility requirements.

What other requirements are there?

- We have two basic requirements that is age 55 and over and income.

And in order to determine if they meet the income guidelines, they would need to go by their local job service office, where that determination is made - [Steve] And the testing, what exactly is involved in the testing - Testing is something maybe that, you know when you mention the word testing, I mean, maybe a lot of people might be frightened off, but they shouldn't because it's a very basic procedure.

It's not a procedure where someone passes or fails.

I know that's what most people think of when they think of testing, but this is just simply an assessment to determine what that person's interests are, what their skills are, or their talents so that we might be better able to help them find a job that they would be happy and that they would be well suited for.

- [Steve] Do the people that you get involved in this program most of them are people that have not worked at all before?

- Not necessarily.

No I think the people that come into the program represent a wide variety of backgrounds as far as work is concerned.

I think we have people who have worked, in many different fields.

And also we have people who have never worked at all.

For instance, maybe homemakers who are 55 and over, and for some reason they're going into the workforce for the very first time.

So I don't think that there is a typical recruit.

- [Steve] Getting back to the testing for a moment, somebody who comes in and takes the test, the tests are really just to determine exactly what skills that they might have.

Now what skills is the program looking for?

- Any type of skill.

when I say that I'm not being, I don't mean to be vague but we are just trying to determine what special skill or what special talent or interest that that person has in order to help him find a job or her to find a job that they could best utilize, their past work experience in.

So in saying that we're looking for a particular type of skill, we're not really.

- [Steve] Why should somebody come to you to help themselves find a job when they could some of them maybe feel that they would be better out on their own looking?

- Well, we believe that we have the resources to help people and we also believe that people can benefit from the services that we have to offer.

Maybe a person is having a hard time finding a job on his own.

Sometimes that's the case.

And we feel that that person if he or she comes to us that we can help point them in the right direction that we can put them in touch with an employer who would be able to utilize their experience and their training.

- [Steve] So you have a pool of employers too that you can draw from to place people with.

- We work both with workers and with employers.

And also as far as training is concerned if I might mention a couple of things here very briefly.

We have a training program, Steve, that we're very proud of.

It's the companions for recovery training program.

It's been around for quite a while.

It's been very successful for us.

And in this training program, we train people to work with people who are invalids older people, you know in their homes and in different situations where they would need care.

And we have a training class coming up here very shortly in Putnam County.

It's going to begin August the 12th at 8:30 AM.

It will be held in the senior high vocational building here in Cookeville.

And now we're recruiting people from Putnam, Jackson and white counties for that class.

And if someone who's listening should happen to be interested in that, they need to contact Monah Rector.

Who's here at the development district.

And that number again is 4 3 2 4 1 1 1.

- [Steve] What about an employer who might have a need for somebody with experience to work with them?

- We would certainly encourage them to call us.

As I mentioned before they might call me here at the development district or they might call Theresa Googlsby at the Upper Cumberland human resources agency.

- [Steve] And you had one more thing you wanted to mention quickly.

- Yes I did Just very briefly.

We're considering the possibility of beginning another training program, one that will be new for us.

This would be in domestic engineering.

It would be in the training of housekeepers and custodial persons to work in private homes and hotels motels, and restaurants.

And that's something that we're working out right now.

And we hope to see that come to pass in the near future.

- [Narrator] For our second story tonight, Becky Robertson talks with Tennessee tech officials about courses which will be offered this fall at night.

- If you thought about taking some courses at Tennessee tech, well this fall is your time to do that because they really have some very interesting courses offered.

And we're very happy to have with us today, Dr. Ted Williams, who is the Dean of the college of business administration and Dr. Layton Sisson, who is the Dean of the college of engineering to tell us about some of those special courses that you're offering Dr. System, why are you offering these courses?

- Well, that's one way of making a special effort to attend to the needs of the community and the region.

There may be people out there who are interested in upgrading themselves or even interested in taking something that's different from their career objective now.

And that's one thing we want to do in interfacing with them - Dr. Williams, is this something that you've done in the past?

- Well, we have in the college of business offered courses in the evening hours in the past I think that this fall quarter we'll have a larger set of courses than we've ever had.

- Let me ask you a little bit about some of the courses that you've offered.

Cause there's some very interesting titles here and I think folks would be, well I think they want to know what you've got going.

Let's start with you, Dr. Williams, tell us a little bit about some of you're offering five courses.

I believe this fall, that will be after hours.

- Yes.

We're offering five courses.

There's one in introductory economics.

That course focuses on the entire economy from a global perspective an area called macro economics.

We're offering a course in computer applications in business, which introduces the student to computers and management information systems and how they're applied in business situations.

We're offering a course in personal finance which covers all aspects of personal finance.

The fourth course is a course in the legal environment of business, which focuses on the law and the legal environment as it pertains to the management of a business.

And the last course is operations management which is a course that focuses on the production function in a business or manufacturing operation, both the production of goods and services in an organization.

- And I think most people just from the titles, and I know Dr. Sisson, your titles are, or classes are much the same way.

These are our classes that folks could really use.

I mean, this is something that is, even if you weren't interested in maybe completing a degree or maybe you were interested in, as you mentioned before getting another degree, but regardless, I think these are things that you could use all the time.

Is that right?

Like the, the personal finance and - Well I think the personal finances is a very general course and very widely applicable.

The other four are certainly applicable for many people.

Economics is certainly of general interest - A lot of good courses, Dr. Sisson, let's talk with you.

You got eight courses, right?

- Yes, four of those are courses which all engineering students would take.

Digital computer programming, engineering graphics.

These are language courses that teaches in the engineering graphics.

One learns to express himself visually and special orientation that sort of thing.

And the digital computer course that's the first course in computing that one would want to take.

The other two courses, the fundamentals of electrical engineering circuits and networks.

And that course is in taught South paste mode.

That is a student goes to class and finds out what he needs to do.

And then he does it on his own schedule.

He takes his tasks on his own schedule.

It's really ideal for someone who's a non-traditional a university student and the other one is a basic mechanics course, statics.

- And then you are also offering I believe four courses that perhaps would appeal to a larger group of people.

- Yes, engineering economy is one of those that should appeal to everyone with the problems that we have with inflation and those kinds of things.

One other course that's highly specialized that's worth offering in mentioning here is that of aviation that's offered.

It's a rather unique course.

It teaches people what they need to know in order to pass the FIA written exam.

It's not a flying course, but it gets them ready and they might take this parallel with some flight instruction.

- So the folks then would especially I know we have a lot of people around here that are involved in flying lessons and taking this exam.

This is a course then that would be specifically to help them prepare for that exam.

- Not questionable but once they can pass the exam after passing this course.

Right.

- That's comforting.

And then you also have a machine tool technology.

- Yes I mean machine tool technology course which teaches students to use the machine tools.

And in cutting, we're talking about lays, the Miller machines drills, and cutting it's cutting theory, as well as application people actually use these machines to make things from metal.

- How do you hope folks will utilize this, is this tailored for the working person, or I'm sure with it being offered after hours that you hope the working individual will be able to do that, but folks in industry and and throughout our working communities, - Yes, let me focus on one that I haven't mentioned yet.

And that is the computer graphics course that is ideally suited for those people in regional industries who are interested in upgrading their graphic presentation, using the computer to do so representing things, graphically, doing their designs in a rapid graphical mode using the computer.

- Do you hope that this will Dr. Williams, do you hope that this will get people involved into working on a degree or is it just your idea to serve as whatever needs?

- Well, I think we have the objective of servicing general needs.

If a student wants to come and take one course, just for that particular experience, that's fine.

If they happen to get interested in pursuing a degree then that's good too.

I think we're, we're going to just wait and see what happens in that area.

We don't have any one particular objective in mind - And will it be possible for someone to complete a degree if they're really interested in doing that and they're working, is that possible?

- We would make every effort to see that could be accomplished.

We would hope that we might have some cooperation with industries to let students let their Workman off to come and take courses occasionally but we will devise a program to see that that happens if the interest is there - If someone's interested in taking these courses how do they go about doing that?

Can they contact your departments or should they go through special registration?

- Well, the ideal thing is to go through special registration.

It's set up to accommodate them very quickly Sorted without hustle.

- That's a very key word of registration.

- That's something our own students would worry about Sometimes - That's true.

So they can go through special registration, which is I believe September the 10th I believe it was one of the dates of that and we will definitely put that at the end of the show when the special registration dates are.

But if they're interested in knowing maybe more about these courses and really wanting some detailed information can they contact you?

- Yes, they would contact either the Dean's office or the appropriate department.

And I think the best way would be to contact the Dean's office and we'll put them in touch with the appropriate people.

- All right let's run down through here one more time so we can make sure that all the folks know these courses and what you're offering, and maybe we can even highlight the times of when they'll be, I can do that.

I've got it right here.

And you won't even have to worry about it.

Let's start with the business since that's what we were on before computer applications in business.

And what sort of course will this be again?

- This is an introduction to computing, to computers and to computer applications in business.

students will work on both microcomputers, a mini computer in the college of business and on the mainframes at the university computer center.

So they'll get a real good exposure to computing.

- And this will be 6:00 to 9:00 on Wednesday night.

And they just told me that we're almost out of time.

So maybe I should just run through here and just list them.

Operations management will be 7:30 to 9:00 Monday and Wednesday.

And principles of economics will be offered two times in the afternoon and one at night on Tuesday and Thursday.

And then personal finance will be 6:00 to 7:30 on Monday and Wednesday.

And the legal environment of business will be 6:00 to 7:00 on Monday and Wednesday.

And your classes on circuits and networks, 6:00 to 7:30 on Tuesday and Thursday.

Engineering economy, 6:00 to 7:30 on Monday and Wednesday machine tool technology will be offered two evenings, Tuesday and Thursday.

And the C engineering graphics will be 6:00 to 8:00 Monday and Wednesday.

And digital computer programming will be 6:00 to 7:30.

And I probably, although we're out of time I should definitely mention the aviation course which will be 6:00 to 9:00 on Thursday.

We certainly appreciate all of you coming down here and talking about all of these courses.

I hope it's been helpful and hope you have a lot of folks turn out.

- It's our pleasure, thank you - We appreciate the opportunity, thank you.

- [Narrator] In June, 1985, seaboard systems railroad filed and intent to abandon their rail line between Donaldson and Monterrey.

Following a six month study on the feasibility of abandonment.

On our final story tonight, we talk with Putnam County, executive John Gentry who is chairman of a study committee which is forming a rail authority to represent Putnam Smith and Wilson County and the cities within them in an attempt to save rail service in this area.

- Seaboard is very serious about abandoning the line.

They make no bounds about that as to when they will abandon.

And a lot of that will depend on what work the rail authority does and if there's any protest and those kinds of things but abandonment could take place as early as a year from now.

And when we heard the announcement made in December the county executives and mayors in the counties that are involved decided to get together and discuss a problem along with some shippers and chamber of commerce people and find out what we should do.

This section of rail is about 108 miles long altogether.

There are two major grades that have to be taken into consideration.

One is from Buffalo Valley to silver point in this County.

And the other is from all good to Monterrey also in this County Seaboard, their basic position is that they're losing money operating this section of railroad, the expenses of providing crews and equipment and repairs to the line are more than they're taking in revenue.

And we seen some of that information and we're saying they're probably correct in their analysis.

We are looking at the possibility of setting up a Short line operator to hopefully take over this section of railroad in the event, they ultimately abandon.

The obvious question is, when can a Short line operator operate profitably?

And the answer to that has been demonstrated on several occasions in Tennessee where major railroad companies have stepped out of an area and other companies have stepped in have actually increased business and increase revenue and have operated at a profit.

- [Interviewer] how can they do this When the railroad itself is losing money?

- Well, your major railroads, a lot of them are tied into pretty involved labor contracts and benefits and those kinds of things.

And they have to provide a certain number of personnel on each train, whether it won't, you know wouldn't necessarily want it.

Short line operators have found it a lot less expensive to operate the same amount of rail as the major line companies have I guess it would be compared to a small business versus a large corporation.

A lot of times, a small business through lower overhead and other things can operate cheaper than the major companies.

And part of our thinking is that seaboard because they're emphasizing more of their effort and resources into the major sections of rail line have really not promoted the rail business on these small sections of rail.

And in these small communities shortline operators generally have emphasized better service and things like that.

- [Interviewer] This was, I guess, demonstrated in the public meeting that Al Gore held in Lebanon, Tennessee by Don Darden, the coffee County executive - That's correct.

He is chairing a real authority down in the coffee County area.

And their experience was that once a Short line operator was set up, they actually were able to handle more car load of shipments and had more business than seaboard had at the time they abandoned.

- [Interviewer] And in a short line system, the people who would be involved in doing the shipping and the County people, County officials would be more involved I guess, than they are now in seaboard systems.

- That's correct.

It's, you know, we hate to say it.

We probably take the railroad for granted as long as it's operating, but once there's a threat of losing it probably gets your shippers a little bit more involved your local officials and others.

And that's been the case here.

We just hope that whatever involvement we can give and hopefully getting a good short line operator will make the difference and make this thing feasible.

- [Interviewer] What about the you said it would take one year for the abandonment process.

Now that was your estimate for the abandonment process to be complete.

And then they seaboard system would have abandoned this line between Monterey and Donaldson, Tennessee will that give the rail authority that's been set up in Putnam County enough time to have continued service?

- We think the time is adequate.

We've already begun work in terms of trying to have things ready.

We met just a few days ago and reviewed five proposals that had been submitted from some short line operators who are interested in this section of rail.

We hopefully will formalize our rail authority within the next 30 to 45 days.

We'll be selecting those folks that we feel ought to be handling the negotiations and other things that will have to be done with seaboard.

We feel like there's adequate time.

And seaboard has been fairly cooperative in this effort of ours and has indicated that they will work with us as long as we're progressing on the issue.

And I don't think we are in a spot where they're going to be wanting to rip up the tracks before we have a chance to make an offer and get things in line.

- [Interviewer] What is the worst thing that could happen in this abandonment?

And I'd also like you to contrast that with what you feel will actually happen?

- Well, the worst thing would be that we are unsuccessful in in getting a short line operator that can operate any portion of the rail and that we're unsuccessful in getting seaboard to forget its ideas of abandonment.

That's the worst thing.

And what would happen in that case is a the seaboard railroad would probably come in and take up the rail take up the cross ties completely abandoned forever.

The railroad in this part of the country that would not only affect existing industry.

It would also affect this region's ability to attract new industry that is rail oriented.

That's the worst scenario.

It could mean ultimately jobs and business for this part of the state.

It's hard to assess what I think will happen.

I do think there is an opportunity and I'm optimistic that a Short line company can be put into place.

The thing that will make it work is commitment from local shippers to use the railroad and commitments from the short line operator to promote a good service and provide the people in this area and all along the line the kind of service that really they deserve and have always wanted when it to railroad, there's going to have to be some capital upfront to purchase the rail if this comes about and also to rehabilitate it.

And we're optimistic that we'll be able to get some grant funds and other funds to accomplish that.

That's what we hope to accomplish and that's our mission so to speak, - [Interviewer] once again, I'll refer to Don Dargen in the public meeting in Lebanon, because he was the most outspoken person at the meeting which we ran on WCTE shortly thereafter, isn't it or wouldn't it be better to have a short line system?

- It would be better to have a short line operator that would provide good service.

- [Interviewer] I mean, actually better than seaboard systems itself.

- Correct.

Then it would be to have seaboard with the service that they're now providing.

Now, obviously it's important to have rail period for this community.

And if we run six on a success I'm putting a short outright, we'd rather say seaboard remain in business then, but you're correct.

Don Darden was correct.

And that if we could have a good short line operator actually this whole issue and problem that's now facing us would become an improved situation and things would be much better if we can put that together.

(playful flute music)