Community tech center celebrates successful first year

The Community Technology Education Center at Montana State University-Northern is celebrating being open a year - and having more than 12,000 logins at its lab recorded - with an open house Wednesday.

"We're estimating another 20,000 next year," center director Randy Bachmeier said Thursday.

Bachmeier said the center, created through a U.S. Department of Education grant to provide access to and training in modern information technology to people in economically distressed areas, is averaging 1,500 logins a month.

The center is located in the Vande Bogart Library on the university campus. It wa...