Kaskaskia College President George Evans says delays in the arrival of two large air conditioning units will cause the classroom renovation project on the 2nd floor of the HB and L buildings not to be completed by the start of classes next week.
Evans says alternative plans have been made for the students in the 16 impacted classrooms.
Evans says the final touches are being made on the rest of the project that is converting the classrooms into state of the air learning centers.
“Painting is getting done, flooring is being laid, the technology is being installed, but where we are being delayed at is our major HVAC rooftop units. The biggest units we need for the main campus building is sitting in Tennessee and are just not fully assembled. We are frustrated. We anticipated the manufacturing delays when we put this out to bid, we sent out certified letters of intent to train. We have been given repeated dates of delivery.”
Evans says the latest delivery date is August 28th. He notes the units are so large they will need to be lifted onto the roof with a crane. For safety reasons, the campus will have to be cleared the day they are installed so a Friday date is being targeted.
“We are anticipating getting everything hopefully installed so our students can have a great second 8-weeks of this semester. We’ve made provisions, already notified our student population that we are relocating them to areas throughout campus that have full HVAC and technology services and definitely letting them know we apologize for the inconvenience.”
Evans says the in-person classes will be held in the Lifelong Learning Center. Those students in High Flex classes will start the first eight weeks remotely if it takes that long for the work to be completed.
On the positive side, Evans says the new classrooms have unbelievable technology which he feels will help recruit future students.
Evans has also announced completion of the replacement of all the waterlines on campus with new copper lines. They replace the original 50 to 60 year old lines. Work is expected to begin in October to replace all of the sewer lines on campus.
