HOLLY POND — Holly Pond High School received quite the Valentine’s Day gift Wednesday when its new, expanded welding facility was unveiled.

As Holly Pond tenth-grader Jackson Miller explored the new facility Wednesday, he said he wasn’t looking to pursue a career in welding. To him, it was more of a “fun hobby” and just an all-around useful skill to have. Still, even a hobbyist such as Miller could immediately see the benefits of the new facility compared to the school’s previous shop.

“The other one didn’t have as good of ventilation and the lighting is definitely better in here,” Miller said.

Even though the previous welding shop didn’t exactly set a relatively high bar — Cullman County Schools Superintendent Shane Barnette described it as a “makeshift” welding facility in an older building the district had previously acquired — no corners were cut while designing and constructing the new building.

Barnette said the ventilation and lighting mentioned by Jackson was thanks to a state of the art ventilation system and increased electrical to accommodate high voltage draws from welding machines.

He said the new building was designed in such a way that it could house the 10-12 welding booths which currently line the right wall, while also allowing for the possibility of machinery to be added in the future.

“We can add other machinery across the way from these booths in this same building that has been prepared with sprinkler systems and all the other safety features that we didn’t have in our other facility,” Barnette said.

Holly Pond Ag teacher and FFA sponsor Rusty Roden said the school’s Ag Department was steeped in more than “50 years of greatness” and hoped this new facility would be another tool which allowed the school to help and serve its neighbors.

“We’re going to try our best to make some great things happen in this building. The main thing that I would like to do here is to help our community. People can bring things in here that we can fix and repair while you guys [students] can learn. Holly Pond has always been a great community and all we want to do is carry on the tradition of Holly Pond and Cullman County Schools.”