Above: BRTC machine tool instructor Gary Meir; Brad Maynard, Mike Lunday, & Shane Ferguson,
maintenance supervisors from Baxter Healthcare; auto service instructor Travis DeClerk, and Business
and Tech Dean Phillip Dickson
POCAHONTAS, AR November 1, 2019 – In August, Baxter HealthCare in Mountain Home, a manufacturer
of dialysis materials, visited Black River Technical College about recruiting students with degrees in
industrial maintenance to work in the Mountain Home plant. Recently, BRTC industrial maintenance
faculty and administrators visited Baxter HealthCare in Mountain Home to tour the plant and identify
ways students can benefit from a relationship with the company.
“It was a very clean plant,” said BRTC industrial electricity and electronics instructor Jack DeLoach. “We
really enjoyed our visit.”
The company generously donated a several parts for the electricity department. The parts will create 5
programmable logic controller (PLC) training stations. PLCs are used in manufacturing to control
assembly lines, robotic devices, and other precision industrial machines.
With the existing 10 PLC training stations, DeLoach is excited with the variety. “They both use different
softwares,” he said, explaining the donation will better prepare electricity students for the workforce.
For more information about BRTC’s industrial maintenance program or any of its technical programs,
contact Phillip Dickson, BRTC Dean of Business and Technical Education, at (870) 248-4125 or
Phillip.Dickson@blackrivertech.edu.