Pacific Engineering's portable on-demand trailers were used as mobile COVID-19 testing and vaccine sites during the pandemic.
Now the trailers, made of lightweight composite materials, will be deployed for a different pandemic-related purpose.
Dexter Myers, vice president of the Lincoln-based company, said it will be using a grant from the state to build mobile portable training centers that will be deployed in low-income neighborhoods across the city to help provide workforce development services to people affected by the pandemic.
“We will install cutting-edge state-of-the-art technology, 'digital twins' training equipment, and 3-D printers in mobile PODs so we can set up training centers in underserved QCT sections of Lincoln," he said in an email.
QCT stands for qualified census tract, which is an area where at least 50% of the population earns less than 60% of the city's median income or at least 25% of the population is living in poverty.
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Myers said locations where the trailers will be located haven't been finalized, but the company has had discussions with Southeast Community College, the Malone Center, the Boys and Girls Clubs of Lincoln, the YWCA and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The grant to Pacific Engineering, totaling $1.25 million, is one of eight announced Thursday that will go to Lincoln companies, nonprofit organizations and government bodies.
The grants, $10 million in total, are being distributed through the Nebraska Department of Economic Development and come out of the state's allotment of American Rescue Plan Act funds.
According to the Department of Economic Development, the money must be used for either revitalizing public spaces, creating affordable housing or workforce development.
The city of Lincoln, which received the largest of the eight grants, $2.125 million, will use the money in the development of a proposed South Haymarket Park.
The 6-acre park near Seventh and N streets is expected to cost $10 million-$12 million to fully develop. The Lincoln Parks Foundation is expected to raise much of the money through a capital campaign that will start later this year after the completion of a master plan.
The other grants and their recipients are:
* Clinic with a Heart — $2 million.
* Downtown Lincoln Association — $1.25 million.
* Center for People in Need — $1 million.
* NeighborWorks Lincoln — $1 million.
* Rabble Mill/The Bay — $1 million.
* Gener8tor — $375,000.