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By PAMELA GOULD
Germanna Community College President David Sam made an urgent plea to the Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors last night for roughly $1.2 million to help pay for a new $28.4 million academic building.
Sam next plans to visit officials in Fredericksburg and the counties of Stafford, Caroline and King George to ask them for a total of $1.5 million.
Spotsylvania is being asked for the largest share of the roughly $2.7 million the college needs because its residents make up the largest percentage of students taking classes at the campus where the new building would be located. In the 2008-2009 school year, 47 percent of Germanna students enrolled at the Fredericksburg Area Campus lived in Spotsylvania.
Sam's requests would cover the local portion of the cost of building a third academic building at that campus, which is located in the Massaponax area of Spotsylvania.
Yesterday, he conveyed a sense of urgency for the appeal because without a local funding commitment soon, the college won't be able to move forward with the building as part of a higher education bond package approved by the General Assembly in 2007.
Several supervisors last night expressed support for the college's needs.
"I am going to do what I can to support this," said Supervisor Hap Connors. "I see community colleges, especially in this economy and in the future, being more flexible with helping people train for jobs we see coming down the pike"
The county would have the option of paying over a five- to seven-year period.
Supervisor Emmitt Marshall said the county would owe about $174,000 a year if the board decided to pay over seven years.
"It comes at a tough time for the county," Marshall said. "We are experiencing shortfalls in revenue."
Supervisor Benjamin Pitts, who graduated from Germanna in 1986, said this is a good project.
"I cannot think of a better way to invest public money than to invest in people," he said.
State bond revenue would cover all but about $2.7 million of the costs associated with the building. The state requires community colleges to pay the costs of furnishing the structure and expenses involved in site work 3 feet from the building.
Those costs include items such as furniture, lab equipment, parking, lighting, landscaping and stormwater management.
If the project doesn't begin as part of that bond package, Sam said it would be at least five years before the college gets another opportunity for state funding. It was approved in 2007 based on enrollment growth and need.
The proposed building is slated to be ready for students at the earliest in 2012, Sam said. A delay would push back any future building to at least 2017.
With enrollment increasing about 30 percent over the past three years, he said such a delay would severely impact students and the community.
TRYING TO MEET DEMAND
The 45,000-square-foot building would contain 15,000 square feet of classroom space, a 13,000-square-foot learning resource center and 4,700 square feet of office space.
The classroom space would include labs for science and engineering students, two fields in particular demand in the region.
The region's third hospital is expected to open in Spotsylvania next year nearly within sight of the campus, and Spotsylvania economic development officials have been actively recruiting companies that rely on engineers such as defense contracts and companies developing clean energy.
Over the past two years, Sam has approached each locality informally and has sought private donors to help pay the local portion of the building's cost.
But he said the bad economy has severely impacted his ability to generate funding.
"In the dark times we're in, it's hard for anybody to provide those dollars," he said.
As a stop-gap measure Germanna's college board last week approved allocating $800,000 of its local funds toward the project in case they are needed.
Germanna's Educational Foundation may apply for a loan to move the project forward, but would need commitments from the localities or private donors for the $2.7 million.
Sam asked the Spotsylvania supervisors to commit to providing $1.2 million over five to seven years.
He specifically asked the board to hold a public hearing on the matter in October or November and vote by Nov. 24.
Staff writer Dan Telvock contributed to this story.
Pamela Gould: 540/735-1972
Email: pgould@freelancestar.com
| Germanna Community College President David Sam is seeking roughly $2.7 million in local funding to build a $28.4 million, three-story academic building on the campus in Massaponax.
The 45,000-square-foot building would include the following. 4,700 square feet of office space for a dean, 18 full-time faculty and 12 adjunct faculty, and meeting space, break rooms and IT space. 13,000-square-foot learning resource center with stacks for about 16,000 volumes, reading spaces, multimedia lab, project and study rooms. 15,000 square feet of classroom space for four biology labs, two engineering labs, two environmental chambers for biology experiments, two chemistry labs, two physics labs and two general purpose classrooms.
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