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The Southwestern Community College approved two building project requests during its regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday.
Science Labs
The first project is a renovation to update the science labs in the Instructional Center.
“We will actually work on a project that goes from the first science lab, the biology classroom, all the way to the down ramp that goes to D Area — so a little bigger area than just the science labs,” said Vice-President of Economic Development Tom Lesan. “It’s a project that needs to be done. If you go over there, it is 1970 vintage classrooms. We have updated the paint and we put in some fume hoods. That’s it. It’s still 1970s vintage. It needs updated.”
Construction will start during spring break and is expected to be completed at the end of October. The science labs will be torn out to be remodeled and updated with new technologies and add a fire suppression sprinkler system
Science classes and labs would not be interrupted during the renovation because Lesan plans on bringing in a portable lab and classroom for the duration of the project.
Ag Center
Lesan also presented the board with a tentative plan for an expansion of the SWCC Ag Center.
The expansion would include a reinforced room that would act as a storm shelter. The room would be constructed in a way similar to the halls and laundry rooms in student housing. The Ag Center does not currently have any sort of protection in case of a storm.
“What we’re going to do will help, but let’s hope we will never have to test it,” said Lesan. “It worked when we had the F2 tornado in [2012]. Everyone who got to the hallway was safe. The one injury we had stopped in the air lock and looked out the window. It does work, and that’s exactly what we’re talking about. It’ll be a cap on the building and reinforced walls. It will be a much better situation than what’s up there right now.”
Vice-President of Instruction Bill Taylor said the number of ag students is expected to more than double for the fall 2019 semester.
“We have livestock production, crop production and ag business. Then we have the AA transfer (program) in ag as well,” said Taylor. “When you add those up, it’s 173 prospects next year, and it’s currently 66 majors.”
Construction on the ag center will begin sometime in March and is expected to be completed by the fall semester.
“The existing building was designed for about 70 to 75 students,” said Lesan. “There’s two small classrooms a big lab and a couple of offices. It really wasn’t designed for there to be 100 people out there every hour of every day taking classes. The classrooms in the new plan are almost twice the size of existing classrooms.”
Cost projection
Although the board was looking at two separate project, Lesan said he hoped that they could be done at the same time, which would save money because they could use the same subcontractor for both projects.
The cost for both projects would be less than $2 million because rather than hiring a general contractor, the college would act, with the help of an architect and construction company, as its own construction management firm.
“They work with us on the design phase,” said Lesan. “It’s supposed to save you money and make the building better when you have the construction people at the table with the architect. It’s what we did with the dorm and it worked very well. We control the process.”