Allen Community College trustees expressed little appetite Monday to pour millions of dollars into a pair of aging dormitories.
The trustees gathered in a special meeting to discuss the nuts and bolts of a recently released facilities assessment for the Iola campus and its structures.
The top-to-bottom examination spelled out what engineers described as immediate and moderate needs, which totaled more than $15 million.
And while the biggest-ticket items — infrastructure within the main campus building — will require its own discussion, the focus during Monday’s session was on student housing.
Horton Hall, the college’s largest and oldest student dormitory, houses 96 beds and opened its doors when the campus was built in 1970.
Over the subsequent 55 years, several repairs have been made, and the facility remains structurally sound.
But it also needs an entirely new HVAC system, pegged by engineers at about $2.3 million.
Tack on another $1 million to replace its plumbing and another $500,000 for new electric panels throughout, and resuscitating Horton carries a price tag north of $4 million.
“I can’t see spending $4 million on that,” Trustee Becky Nilges said.
Fellow trustees Corey Schinstock and Vicki Curry agreed, the latter equating it to putting “lipstick on a pig.”
Winter Hall, which was constructed in the early 1980s, also faces several costly upgrades, although none carries the same urgency as Horton. Nevertheless, fixing up the 56-bed dorm was pegged at about $1.7 million.
A MAJOR investment is almost certainly in the cards, no matter which route trustees follow.
The costs for a new facility would likely cost in excess of $10 million, and that’s just to replace the beds that would be vacated if Horton were to close altogether.
New construction may be necessary regardless, ACC President Lyvier Leffler pointed out.
“Whatever we do, we’re over capacity with our current housing right now,” Leffler said. “We need more housing, period.”
Trustees asked Leffler and Plant Operations Director Ryan Sigg to begin exploring the college’s options, with a boat load of questions needing answered, including:
