Amid all the upgrades and improvements in downtown Perry, there is even a little new construction seen — at DMACC.
Students from the Des Moines Area Community College Ankeny campus are busy building a tool shed in the gated parking lot of the DMACC Perry VanKirk Career Academy.
Tim Schwind, building trades instructor at the Ankeny campus, said his classes normally take on bigger projects than the 8′ by 15′ tool shed that is rising on the Perry DMACC’s west side.
“But I’m a personal friend of Randy Gabriel, so I said I’d do it,” said Schwind, a 18-year veteran of DMACC. Gabriel is the new part-time director of the VanKirk Career Academy.
Schwind, who works as a contractor during the day and teaches building classes on the Ankeny at night, said the shed will house supplies.
The veteran builder said he would like to see a program in building trades develop in Perry, such as a cooperative venture between Perry High School and DMACC. He said other local schools have succeeded in building and selling spec houses, and Perry’s property tax abatement program could spur similar success for building trades classes.
At 120 square feet, even the tool shed’s design could prove popular because it looks like one of the tiny houses catching on around the U.S. and abroad.
