BENTONVILLE -- Northwest Arkansas Community College received legislators' approval Wednesday to move forward with construction of a building estimated to cost more than $5 million.
The building, which college officials are calling an "integrated design lab," originally came up for approval at the Legislative Council's June meeting, but was tabled because of some unanswered questions legislators had about the project. Nobody from the college attended that meeting.
Facility plans
Northwest Arkansas Community College is working on another facility project: the Washington County Center in Springdale. The college owns 20 acres next to Arvest Ballpark in Springdale where the center will be built. A fundraising effort to pay for construction has brought in $3.6 million; Evelyn Jorgenson, college president, estimated a total of between $10 million and $12 million will be needed to complete the building.
Source: Staff report
President Evelyn Jorgenson was one of several college representatives who attended a council subcommittee meeting last week to answer legislators' questions. The council unanimously approved the project without discussion at its meeting Wednesday, she said.
Jorgenson attended Wednesday's council meeting along with Jim Hall, director of government and community relations, and Ricky Tompkins, vice president of learning. She expressed relief at the result.
"We are just anxious to get (the building) started," she said.
The integrated design lab will bring the construction technology and fine arts programs under one roof, which Jorgenson admitted sounds like an odd combination.
"But it isn't, because one feeds the other," she said. "Nothing gets built without it first being designed."
The construction technology and arts programs have similar needs in terms of tools, resources and ventilation, she said.
"It makes efficient use of equipment, efficient use of space and allows for this innovative, creative arrangement where that opportunity for students to bounce ideas off each other and learn from each other will be tremendous," Jorgenson said.
Plans are to put the building just west of the Student Center in roughly the center of the college's main campus. The additional classroom space will allow the college to expand other programs that are thriving, such as the graphic design and apprenticeship programs, she said.
State Sen. Bart Hester, R-Cave Springs, is one legislator who initially expressed concern about the project, mainly because it seemed to lean more toward the arts than workforce development programs.
"If I've learned one thing in politics, it's that you usually don't get everything you want," Hester said. "(The college) made strides toward a lot of things we really need, and I guess they get to do some of the stuff the college wants, like art, which has no demand in our current market."
State Rep. Jim Dotson, R-Bentonville, is a vice chairman of the Legislative Council and also part of the council's Review Subcommittee that examined the integrated design building plan in depth last week.
"We grilled (college officials) pretty hard on it last week," Dotson said.
Legislators were encouraged the college was able to get the cost down from an estimated $366 per square foot to $223 per square foot, he said. The cost is "definitely on the upper end of reason, but more within reason," Dotson said.
Earlier plans called for a building of 18,000 square feet, but college officials have increased the size to 24,000 square feet. They've estimated the cost at roughly $5.5 million.
The building would be paid for with local millage dollars. The college sets aside one-third of the millage revenue it receives from residents of the Bentonville and Rogers school districts for capital needs. Dotson said college officials assured him they would not seek a millage increase to help pay for the building.
Jorgenson said earlier this month the college could open the building by January 2019, but added that would require an aggressive timetable. A fall 2019 opening is more likely, she said.
NW News on 08/24/2017