OTTUMWA — Wide-ranging subjects from a tour of the new Regional Workforce Center to a new diesel locomotive course kept the Indian Hills Community College board of trustees busy for three hours at their regular monthly meeting Monday.

Most of the items consisted of what the board seemed to consider good news.

For example, a representative from the State Auditor’s Office told the trustees that the school passed its 2011 state audit with no exceptions. Such audits are required by law.

The last part of the meeting Monday was taken up by a tour of two newly renovated areas: taken up by a tour of two newly renovated areas: the Arts and Sciences wing of the school on the main campus and the new Regional Workforce Center located near the Ottumwa Regional Airport at the school’s “North Campus.”

The center has multiple organizations dedicated to helping employers and employees connect. The building itself is owned by Indian Hills. Linda Rouse, operations director for Iowa Works, told board members that the 14,000 square feet will house Iowa Workforce Development, Promise Jobs, Vocational Rehabilitation and the Workforce Investment Act office.

There are jobless residents who come in just looking for the unemployment office, she said, and that’s available. The new center will make it easier for patrons to get help. In fact, advisors will circulate through the job search area assisting clients.

But some of the people who come through have no GED or high school diploma. Though there’s no requirement that they go finish their schooling, counselors at the center have resources available for those who want to train for a better job.

“We always make their opportunities known to them,” Rouse said.

IHCC has a presence there because some recently unemployed residents may decide to seek training in a new field.

And The Hills is expanding some of those options that are available. The jobs offices might recommend learning how to repair and refurbish train engines through Indian Hills.

At the behest of Albia-based Relco Locomotives, the college board approved a new program called Diesel Locomotive Technology. Students in the more general diesel classes have already expressed interest in the train program.

A board member asked Daniel Terrian, the department chair for Information and Transportation Technology, if there were open positions for someone with those skills. Terrian said the last time he spoke with them, the Albia location alone had 40 job openings for diesel or electrical workers.

And because other industries use the powerful locomotive engines, there is a demand for those employees.

The goal, said IHCC President Jim Lindenmayer, is to respond quickly to market demands for workers, something community colleges are well-suited to do. Area industry helps determine what types of practical training should be offered to southern Iowa’s potential workforce.

But the school needs to be practical, too. And as concerns of reduced state or federal revenue loom, colleges are searching for ways to provide more of their own income. But not everything will work, said Lindenmayer.

That’s why his “outside-the-box” thinking for an on-campus apartment complex for retired people is so tentative, he said. Would they make more money just leaving an investment sitting where it is or by using it to build a retirement facility?

“We’re just in the investigation stage now,” he told the board.

Other colleges have done this quite successfully, he said — four-year colleges. A two-year school may not even have the authority to put such a commercial operation on campus.