Construction projects are near completion
By Nate Bloomquist
Apache Editor
While most students were on vacation, IVCC Director of Physical Plant Larry Rousey and several construction workers were hard at work in improving buildings at the college.
When all of the work is completed from this summer’s major projects, which according to Rousey should happen in second week of October, the college will have spent more than $3.1 million in renovations to buildings A, B, C, and various computer upgrades throughout the college.
The most noticeable change during the construction project which began in June, is the work that was done on Building A. Parts of the building were closed while maintenance was done on the heating and cooling ducts and asbestos was removed or abated. New lighting and floor coverings were also added, and a dropped ceiling was installed in vaulted ceiling areas.
Classes resumed in the Biology Lab and in the upstairs portion of building A when the fall semester began. The rest of the building was opened for classes on Monday.
Also, a project known as Phase III, which involves the replacement of windows, replacement of wooden window frames, and the re-caulking of joints in the pre-cast concrete on the outside of the building.
The roofs of buildings A, B, and C are being replaced. Rousey estimated the roof on building C at being 95 percent complete, the roof on building B is at 90 percent, and building A’s roof will be completed by the second week of October.
“The work has been going on schedule so far,” said Rousey. “We ran into a couple of delays with the roofing, but other than that everything’s been going smoothly.”
Throughout the college, a new life safety system is being installed. The system replaces the current fire alarm system which is over 30 years old.
The new system will not only provide as a fire alarm, but it will also provide warning for other types of emergencies. The cost of the new system is $614,000, which is provided by life safety funds. The building improvements total $2.9 million.
Pepper Construction of Chicago is the contractor in the duct work project, Halm Bros. of Ottawa is in charge of the air-moisture filtration work, and Koener and Heart Electronics of Peoria are in charge of installing the new emergency warning system.
The improvements come as part of IVCC’s Master Plan, which is a loose guideline established by the college in 1997 for goals and improvements that should be made in the future.
Part of the Master Plan describes a plan for making similar improvements to one building per summer. This is the third year of such improvements. According to Rousey, similar upgrades will be made to building B next summer.
After being shuffled around the campus, the computer labs that were in building A returned to their original location this week. All for the labs except for the CAD lab, which will stay in room D-102 are up and running.
When students returned to those labs this week, they found newer software available for their use. All of the labs were upgraded with Microsoft Office 2000 software. Computers in various offices were still being upgraded at press time.
Rooms A-211 and A-212 have a few new computers added, and 12 additional computers are being installed in LRC-D. SMART boards were also purchased for a few classrooms. The total cost of the upgrades and additions is $199,000, which comes out of the regular budget allocated for computers.
Network specialist Chris Dunlap said there shouldn’t be anymore computer projects this year.“We usually spend all of our money in July,” he said. “We get all of our upgrades out of the way at the beginning of the year and spend the rest of the year with technical support.”