The Kaskaskia College Board Monday night agreed to issue up to $24-million in bonds to pay for construction of a new gym and renovated classrooms at the main campus.
College President George Evans says residents in the district will not see a tax increase as current bonds will be refinanced at a lower rate and the length of the bond issue will be extended. In addition to the issuance of the bonds, Evans says they will be able to take advantage of $1.5-million in federal COVID relief funds, $3.8-million set aside for life safety work, and money the college has already set aside for roof replacements and other maintenance.
The college board agreed Monday night to replacement of the main portion of the gym instead of renovation of the current structure. Evans says the $11-million cost is only $1-million more than modernizing the current facility.
“We can have everyone on one floor going into the elevator and can go into the actual replacement of the gym. Obviously the athletic programs are going to benefit from this greatly but also are our career fairs, the institution to attract new populations to use the gym for recruitment purposes, conferences and things where people in the community can get to the campus and see how new our facilities really are.”
Evans says the new gym will be in the location of the existing gym. The fitness center will not be replaced since it is newer construction.
Evans says the rest of the project will upgrade classrooms.
“Through significant upgrades throughout the board in several of our classrooms. In HPL, our fine arts area, our adult education population will have dedicated classroom space as well as the automotive technology area. Chuck has done a great job in our area, but again going on 40-50 years old and wasn’t built really for automotive technology so its time to get our classrooms modernized and have that up to date technology and space.”
The issuance of the bonds is a “back door” referendum that could be forced to a vote if residents of the college district collect petitions seeking that the purchase of the bonds be put up for a vote. Evans says work on the comprehensive building project has been underway for the past 12 to 18 months.
