By Randa Anthony

On March 24, the Board of Trustees approved an agreement to replace the Heating Ventilating Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, add a new roof, and to remove the asbestos from the A building.

The project, scheduled to begin in mid May, had been estimated to cost about $4.5 million. The Board approved a bid from Pepper Construction that guaranteed a maximum cost of just over $2.4 million.

"I’m very pleased the bids came in as low as they did, so we can maximize the savings to the taxpayers," said Dr. Jean Goodnow, IVCC President.

The leftover funds are to be put toward construction on the B building, for which the Board will be accepting bids in June.

The project for the A building was also estimated to take about a year to complete. The project timeline has now been reduced to three months,said Larry Rousey, director of physical plant.

"We wanted to do all the work without the interruption of services to students," Rousey said. "Because of space utilization during the summer session, we will be able to meet that goal."