Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
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204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
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Tuesday, June 16, 2009
By MICKEY POWELL - Bulletin Staff Writer
A motorsports building planned at Patrick Henry Community College (PHCC) could be one of the first buildings people see upon arriving on campus.
The building tentatively is to be built off the left side of Patriot Avenue — the road into the campus — between the Walker Fine Arts Student Center and the maintenance building, the college’s board learned Monday.
“That is the best location” among several considered, said Wayne Cardwell, the college’s budget and facilities manager.
One reason is that other facilities will not have to be moved. If one of the other sites studied was to be chosen, either a baseball field or a parking lot would have to be relocated, said Public Relations Director Kris Landrum.
Also, large trucks hauling race cars would not have to cross campus and interfere with vehicle and pedestrian traffic, Landrum said.
Choosing another site “would require extensive renovations to the roads” on campus to make them suitable for large trucks, Cardwell added.
Plans are for the building to have two stories and about 40,000 square feet of floor space. However, PHCC staff, RRMM Architects of Roanoke and several engineering firms continue to discuss matters pertaining to the construction, and no firm location or design plans have been established yet.
The anticipated $8.7 million construction cost is being funded through a bond issue approved by the General Assembly last year.
Bids from contractors probably will not be accepted until early next year, Landrum said. Assuming that, construction likely could not be completed before the fall of 2011, she said.
The tentative site of the building is beside a hill. So if the building is erected there, only its top story probably would be visible from the stretch of Patriot Avenue leading into the campus, officials said.
Plans are for the main entrance to be placed on the top story, said Nolan Browning, vice president for academic and student development services.
PHCC’s motorsports program currently is based at Arrington Manufacturing in the Patriot Centre at Beaver Creek industrial park. Because the program is a unique part of the college’s curriculum, attracting students from outside the area as well as locally, college officials want it on the main campus.
Landrum said the college expects to have 80 students in the motorsports program this fall. Of those students, about 10 percent will be from outside PHCC’s service area of Henry, Patrick and Franklin counties and Martinsville, she said.
Also Monday, PHCC’s board learned that construction bids for renovations planned to the Learning Resource Center, which houses the college’s library, are expected to be in no later than June 25.
Renovations will include asbestos removal and the installation of new lighting, a new electrical system and new heating and air-conditioning equipment. The construction budget is about $2.4 million.
Construction is expected to take about a year, Cardwell said. If there are no problems with bids submitted and a contract can be awarded soon after they are in, construction will begin in early August, he said.
Until construction is finished, a temporary library has been set up inside a large meeting room in Frith Hall on the other side of the campus.
The board also:
• Learned that Henry County has not yet paid its share of local funds to PHCC for the current fiscal year.
The college is getting a total of $119,900 from localities in its service area. Only Henry County has not yet paid its $58,135 share, said Ron Epperly, vice president for financial and administrative services.
The county usually pays its contributions in full near the end of each fiscal year, Epperly said, so he is sure “we’ll be getting their contribution soon.”
• Approved a $145,350 student and college activities budget for the new fiscal year that starts July 1. That amount is an increase of $850, or 0.59 percent, over the budget for the current fiscal year.
The budget covers costs of “extracurricular activities that help round out the overall college experience” for students, such as motivational speakers and entertainment performances, Landrum said. |
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