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OTTUMWA, IOWA -- On Tuesday, KTVO stopped by the construction site of the new Job Corps Center near the Ottumwa Airport.

Since U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis visited Ottumwa for the groundbreaking last August, the Job Corps campus now has eight buildings over 27 acres of ground. Included in these buildings are classrooms, a recreation center and dormitories.

Wapello County Supervisor Greg Kenning said that there have been no major snags in the construction process thus far.

"Sometimes you get something like this underway, you run into union problems. And sometimes weather isn't cooperative. I've got to say that even though we haven't had weather so severe that it's caused any stoppages. Or that it's been of the nature where they couldn't go further," Supervisor Kenning said.

In total, the gross area of all the buildings combined will be 150,000 square feet of space.

Kenning said that everything is proceeding well and that the project should be completed this year.

"We're planning on it's completion by this coming December. And that's pretty much right on the time schedule that they set two years ago. So as far as that goes, we want to make sure that the county has done everything it could do to make that happen. Most recently, it's been getting the roads around it in shape," Supervisor Kenning said.

He added that when Job Corps is completed, it will benefit the entire region.

"They'll employ about 150 full-time and part-time people. They'll serve, at this stage, probably somewhere around 400 students. So it's going to be quite a game-changer," Supervisor Kenning said.

He also added that the goal is for classes to begin next spring.

In 2009, U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) announced that he was able to secure more than $25 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for the Job Corps Center.