Allen County Community College is one step closer to building a new student housing complex.
The college’s Board of Trustees, at its regular monthly meeting Thursday, hired architect Paul Cavanaugh of Places Architect’s, Wichita, to draw up formal plans for a complex.
The three-story structure will house up to 24 students and be equipped with a community laundry room, as well as kitchens in each of the 12 apartments.
Trustees noted that while enrollment has grown steadily the past decade, and has stabilized over the past two years, existing student â¨housing is filled to the brim each year.
Cavanaugh encouraged trustees to act quickly to take advantage of lower than expected construction costs amid the sluggish economy. He estimated the structure would cost between $500,000 and $600,000, or at a cost of between $80 and $100 per square foot.
“Those are very reasonable costs,” Cavanaugh said.
How much ACCC pays for Cavanaugh’s services will depend on if the college agrees to go ahead with the construction, and if so, the project’s total cost.
Trustees indicated they would favor using unencumbered cash reserves instead of paying interest through a lease purchase agreement.
Steve Troxel, vice president for finance and operations, indicated the project could be paid for over the next two years. He estimated ACCC would have about $6.5 million in working cash reserves at the end of the 2011-12 academic year.
TRUSTEES DENIED a request from two commercial property owners to be retroactively included within Iola’s neighborhood revitalization program.
Owners of American Self Storage and the Iola Pharmacy satellite office attached to Family Physicians on the east side of town have appealed to the college, USD 257, Allen County and the city to get a refund on added property taxes they’ve paid since those facilities were built in 2007.
Dana Watson and Benny Beurskins, who own the storage units, told Iola Council members earlier this year that they had applied for the tax rebates in a timely manner, but their application subsequently was lost by city employees. Pharmacy owners applied after learning earlier this year that they did not qualify for other tax breaks because they, as a retail business, should not have been included in an industrial revenue bond agreement Family Physicians owners used to build their clinic. Had they known they would not have been included, they, too, would have applied inclusion into the neighborhood revitalization program at the outset.
Property tax abatements in the program are 100 percent, less 5 percent retained by the county for administration, for five years and then decline by 20 percent a year to zero.
Trustees were given three options. To approve the requests in the plan for the full 10-year abatement period, dating back to 2007; to allow inclusion for the remaining six yea; or to deny the requests altogether.
Trustees picked the third option.
Each of the four taxing entities decide the abatements independently. The college and Allen County commissioners denied the requests. The city and USD 257 approved.
IF ACCC’S men’s and women’s basketball teams qualify for postseason play next season, they will do so in different divisions.
Athletic director Randy Weber told trustees that the coaches for both teams were given the option of being listed in either the National Junior College Athletic Association’s Division I or Division II, starting in the 2012-13 season.
Anwar Perry, men’s basketball coach, picked Division I. Mark James, womens head basketball coach, opted for Division II.
Allen County was the only college Weber was aware of that opted to split divisions for its basketball teams.
Division I schools are generally considered at a higher level athletically, Weber explained.
Trustee Larry Manes noted that over the past 15 years, the women’s team qualified for postseason play in 14 years, but won a playoff game only once, and lost by an average of 34 points in the other 13.
The new designation will largely have no effect on regular season schedules, Weber said. Both teams are still a part of the Jayhawk Conference, and thus will play the same opponents. The change will come when postseason play begins, when the Division II schools break off into a separate round of playoffs.
The new change is effective for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons, Weber said.
“This isn’t a permanent deal,” he said.
TRUSTEES approved the purchase of a new 10-pan steam table for the food service department. The table will be purchased from Tholen’s Heating and Cooling, Inc., Iola, at a cost of $12,159.92, the lower of two bids received.
