SWCC envisions extensive facilities additions

Southwestern Community College could be getting some upgraded athletic practice and playing space in the coming years, along with a new career academy program, according to the master facilities plan.

SWCC President Lindsay Stoaks shared updates on the college’s master facilities plan during Tuesday’s board of trustees meeting, the three main focuses being the new transportation training center, a new skilled trades center and athletic facility improvements.

Earlier in the year, students, faculty and staff were interviewed on what they like and wanted for the school. These interviews resulted in a number of common themes. Students consistently listed a shortage of athletic facilities and access to high-speed internet as concerns, while staff believed the college needed more program offerings, new and updated facilities and newer technology.

The transportation training center, connected to the Agricultural Sciences Center, is well on its way to being completed. The concrete for the CDL training range was poured in September, and concrete for the building itself is curing this week. The college expects construction on the facility to begin next week.

“I think that, if weather holds together, we’re very hopeful to make a great deal of progress, maybe even completion before the end of the year,” Stoaks said. “We’ll just see how the weather and other factors play into that.”

The second goal of the master facilities plan, a new skilled trade center, has not started work yet. However, the college has multiple plans they’re ready to start on. Currently, the ag building hosts part of the electrical technology, carpentry and building trades programs. With the addition of the CDL program, the space will no longer be able to accommodate all the programs.

The goal is to add a new 14,500 square-foot building to house carpentry and electrical programs, accommodating both classroom and lab needs. The prospective facility would be east of the existing Tech Center II building.

“It would feature several larger size labs for carpentry and electrical, a few classrooms, and then also a big bay for the EMS program’s ambulance,” Stoaks said. “It would also feature a storage yard with some screening that would allow for our trades programs to park and protect the carpentry truck, job site trailers, electrical vans, along with materials and supplies, and then that also would help us with some curb-side appeal to the east end of the campus, which is highly visible to the public.”

Along with a new trade center building, Stoaks said the college hopes to bring an add an expansion to the Tech Center I building as well. The goal with the addition would be to expand the welding program, including adding welding to the career academy program.

“Recently, we’ve been hearing from industry, as well as our K-12 partners, about the interest and the need to establish a welding technology career academy program,” Stoaks said. “We have six other career academy programs on campus. We have not ever developed welding to serve our local high school students. This would serve as a fantastic opportunity for us to strengthen our skilled workforce.”

Based on primary estimates, construction of the new facility would cost about $4.3 million, while a 9,500 square-food expansion of Tech Center I would cost between $750,000 and $950,000. The college plans to go to bid for these projects in spring 2025.

The most expensive of the master facilities plan projects are the proposed athletic facility improvements. SWCC Dean of Student Services Kim Bishop explained the Spartan Coliseum, located on New York Avenue inside the former Walmart building, is owned by Greater Regional Health. While the college looking into buying the space and renovating it, Bishop said the cost is too great based on the circumstances.

“We’re really fortunate to have such a great partnership with Greater Regional Health. It currently serves our needs,” Bishop said. “We would be looking at an estimated conservative price of $6.8 million to renovate that space off campus. It was an older building, off campus that we could have potentially looked at, but with that price, we also wanted to see what we could do on campus in a new facility.”

The $6.8 million price tag includes the purchase of the building, new concrete and general building renovations. Board of Trustees President Tony Cass said he’d prefer to see that money spent on campus, where it would be easier for students to reach.

Stoaks agreed, sharing a four-phase approach to improve upon already present and bring new athletic facilities to campus, which the college came up with after working with architectural firm Shive-Hattery.

“We would see this kind of occurring over the next seven to 10 years,” Stoaks said. “We see the project to be ambitious yet attainable.”

Phase one of the project centers on the baseball and softball fields already on campus.

“Our field surface is not safe in some places, our dugouts need some major work, the backstops, the fencing is also not safe in some areas with it curling, our sidewalks are not ADA compliant,” Bishop said.

In this first phase, the two fields would be converted to synthetic turf, with the hopes of extending the usability of the fields. Other areas around the fields that effect the athletes would be fixed as well. The first phase has an anticipated price tag of about $2.5 million.

Phase two extends to the space around the outdoor fields and “includes constructing new restrooms, small concession stand space, and then taking a look at using a safe room, which would double as some indoor space for batting cages. That facility would be located between the baseball and softball fields,” Stoaks said.

The safe room would be a hardened structure to provide protection during tornadoes and other extreme weather. Stoaks said the college would work to get a FEMA grant for the room as part of the funding of the phase. The closest safe room for SWCC students is in the Creston Community School buildings. No overall price was mentioned for this phase.

Phase three and four look to add an indoor practice facility to campus, with phase three focusing on bringing wrestling back to SWCC

“We’ve had some very good conversations about reestablishing the men’s wrestling program, coupled with the launch of a women’s wrestling team,” Stoaks said. “Each one of those teams has a potential roster size of about 20, so that would provide the opportunity for the college to grow enrollment and likely a number of those individuals would be living here on campus with us as well.”

The wrestling facility would be about 8,500 square feet, with 6,000 square feet going toward room for three regulation-sized wrestling mats. The remaining 2,500 square feet would go toward a weight training area, something to be utilized by all student athletes. This space would cost about $2.75 million to complete and would likely be placed where the tennis courts currently reside. This would also serve as the entrance to the larger indoor facility, covered in phase four.

With a price range between $8 million and $10 million, phase four’s indoor practice facility would replace the Spartan Coliseum currently used off campus. With a size of about 26,000 square feet, the facility would be home to a an indoor track, a turf space, a weight room and a flexible space with the potential for a sport court. This would be the final step in the long-term plan.

“Again, we’re looking at a seven to 10 year plan here, that would help to serve the majority of our athletic programs and would be east of that student center,” Stoaks said. “We’re ready to roll up our sleeves and continue to get to work on them.”

While the projects would certainly be hefty in cost, Stoaks said it has been more than 15 years since the college has launched a major gifts campaign. Between a campaign, regular fundraising and grants, Stoaks hopes funding the projects won’t be an issue.

In other SWCC news...

SWCC’s annual athletic fundraiser will be held Thursday, Nov. 7. As a dinner and auction, all funds raised will go toward the college’s athletic programming. More information on the athletic facility improvements will be shared at this event as well. Tickets cost $35 per person.

After only one bid came in on time for the electronic access control system, the board voted to reject the bid and go back to the drawing board. The bid that did come in was about two times the expected cost.