Here’s yet another first in a city known for them.

Maybe even another world’s first.

Kokomo’s Inventrek Technology Park, a division of Greater Kokomo Economic Development Alliance, 700 E. Firmin St., is offering a computer lab for engineering, design and marketing projects — everything from creating blueprints to brochures.

From eight state-of-the art computers, the public can access several high-end computer software programs for $8 an hour, plus printing costs, which start at pennies per page.

Each computer workstation is set up so that a credit-card payment through PayPal — using a secure off-site server — can be used to purchase time on the computer.

Computer time and printing costs are tracked and the credit card is charged at the end of the session. Credit-card numbers are not retained, which adds another level of security to the process, said Donald McCreary, Inventrek’s director.

He said Inventrek’s The CAD Lab, the name of the new project, is a fully functional, publicly available computer-aided design lab.

The lab has printing and plotting capabilities and its computers are loaded with state-of-the-art software for mechanical, electrical and advertising design.

Here’s the first for Kokomo; make that possibly a world’s first as well.

“There are a lot of CAD labs out there,” said McCreary, who is also the CAD Lab director, “we searched and searched but we could not find a CAD lab that was available to the public, anywhere. So it’s a first.”

“The CAD Lab also offers a full range of printing and plotting capabilities from simple black on white to full photo-quality color on a multitude of paper sizes. We don’t want to be a print shop, but our OKI830 printer offers three paper sizes, and the HP Design Jet T610 plots images to 36 x 48 inches.”

Located on Inventrek’s second floor in Room 221, the CAD Lab is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday.

“This is a great asset for us to have in our community,” said Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight. “It is important to provide high-tech services to attract new jobs and encourage entrepreneurialism.”

With Kokomo’s average rate of unemployment reaching 15 percent in 2009, offering a public CAD LAB can possibly create more jobs in the area — especially when Inventrek currently has 12 businesses in its incubator, said Jeb Conrad, president and CEO for The Alliance.

“We are excited to lead the effort to develop creative ways to compete globally and distinguish our market from the competition. This is a component of our strategy to be best in class.”

Jan Hendrix, Alliance vice president, said money for the CAD Lab came from a $400,000 federal grant from the Department of Labor. Of that money, $150,000 was used to establish the lab.

“This exciting business model is not available anywhere else in the United States,” said Hendrix, adding several engineers are already using the lab for freelance work, and with 300 engineers in the Neupath engineering opportunities system, additional work is expected.

“It is available to anyone from students and business professionals to independent users for a low user cost.”

As for costs, since Inventrek is non-profit, making money wasn’t a concern in starting the lab, said McCreary, but he still is expecting to “break even by the end of the year.”

“With the engineers we have here, we can contract work out for businesses. With this economy, many small businesses can’t afford to purchase the equipment we have, but they can still come in here and use this facility three times a year if they needed. It’s very affordable, and we have innovative and talented minds here in Kokomo.

“Chandra and Jim Hronchek, of Russiaville’s CJH Innovations, created the software for the user interface and the interface to PayPal and they also created wonderful user manuals. Kokomo’s Alan Edwards, of Alan Edwards Inc., was my hardware/software and do-everything guy. He got everything set up, debugged and properly functioning. He was the primary trouble-shooter, and resolved all of the issues. These folks helped make the CAD Lab a reality.”

• K.O. Jackson is the Kokomo Tribune’s business writer. He can be reached at 765-854-6739 or via e-mail kirven.jackson@kokomotribune.com.