SWCC prepares first round of facility updates

Changes may be coming to Southwestern Community College as soon as this summer with the first phase of the master facility coming to fruition.

The first two projects in SWCC’s plan will go to vote at the board of trustee’s February meeting. SWCC Vice President of Economic Development Wayne Pantini shared the plans for these projects with the board on Tuesday.

“We wanted to review with the board on some of the projects we had slated for this spring, the first one being the Instructional Center,” Pantini said. “Room 180 has some original equipment to the HVAC system in there that we’re hoping to get upgraded and some better heating and cooling in that part of the facility.”

Des Moines-based architectural firm Shive-Hattery looked over the project and recommended the college replace the existing air handling units before continuing with any long-term options. The probable cost was estimated between $1 million and $1.1 million. This project will be funded via the Fund 7 Physical Plant Fund.

For the second project the school will be looking at, Pantini showed two options based on funding availability.

The first option is the construction of a new 14,500-square-foot building as a skilled trades facility, which would hold additional classroom and lab space for numerous programs including carpentry, electrical technology, building trades and emergency management services. This building would be located on the east end of the campus, near Technical Centers 1 and 2.

“In addition, that will also allow us to make additional upgrades and improvements to Tech 1 and some additional classroom spaces in there as we relocate some of the electrical lab space we have in there into the new skilled trades facility,” Pantini said. “That will allow us for some future programming to happen in Tech 1.”

Shive-Hattery put the probable cost for this project at about $5 million. Funding sources would include $2 million in ACE Infrastructure funds, $2 million in Fund 7 Physical Plan Funds and $1 million from a Career Academy Incentive Fund Grant.

The feasibility of the project depends on if the Career Academy grant is awarded. If SWCC does not receive the $1 million grant, the college will have to go with a second option for their second project.

Pantini explained the other improvement project would give attention to the main entrance and parking lot of the college.

“Garden and Associates has come up with the probable cost of that project and that would include the main entrance drive for $386,000 and then the parking lot phase one improvements is $722,000,” Pantini said.

This would be only phase one of the parking lot improvements. This phase would involve reconstructing the main entrance from Highway 25 by adding a boulevard to connect to the main parking lot, relocating a loop drive to the east of the Instructional Center for better access and adding a pedestrian sidewalk to give direct access from the residence halls to the administration center.

If the college were to go with this plan instead of the skilled trades facility, the total cost of about $1.1 million would come out of the Fund 7 Physical Plant Fund.

If approved at the February meeting, Pantini said the projects would all start construction this summer.