CCCC board accepts land for new facility

Two action items related to the construction of the new Technical Education and Innovation Center were approved by the Cloud County board of trustees during its regular meeting on Tuesday night.
The board approved accepting two parcels of land from the Cloud County Community College Foundation. One parcel will provide more space for the construction of the technical education center and the other, along U.S. Highway 81, will be used for highway signage.
The land had been donated to the foundation by an anonymous donor.
“This is really exciting. As you all know, we have been working on securing funds for the Technical Education and Innovation Center. We have been talking about this for probably a year and a half, and now that we are so close to having all of the funds needed to complete the project, the foundation is coming forward to offer two parcels of land to the college,” college president Amber Knoettgen said.
Cloud County Community College (CCCC) plans to begin construction of the 35,000-square-foot technical education center by the end of the year. It will house the renewable energy programs, that include wind energy, solar energy and drones; nursing and allied health; and agriculture and industrial technology.
The estimated cost of the new facility is $13.9 million.
The board of trustees also approved a memorandum of understanding with Cloud County Health Center (CCHC) to allow its administrator, David Garnas, to consult with the college on the construction of the technical education center.
CCHC is nearing completion on the construction of a new $40.3-million hospital on College Drive, across the street from where the college's technical education center will be located.
McCownGordon Construction, the general contractor for the hospital project, will serve in the same capacity for the college on the technical education center construction.
Information provided to the trustees stated that CCCC wishes to consult with CCHC from time to time on the center and that CCHS is willing to make Garnas available for such consultation of advice to the college without charge.
The memorandum of understanding states that Garnas and Salina Regional Health Center, which manages and operates CCHC and employs Garnas, will not have any liability for the project or for such consultation of advice to the college or any third party.
“Thank you to Salina Regional Health Center and to Dave Garnas for stepping up to assist us,” board president Jesse Pounds said. “They are an excellent community partner and that is awesome that they are willing to help us do this. They don't have to do that. The entire community thrives when we all work together.”
Also approved by the board during the meeting was an agreement with Salina Regional Health Center for sports medicine services beginning September 1, 2022, and ending June 30, 2025.
The board members were informed that the agreement, along with the construction of the new hospital, provides the opportunity to formalize a local partnership for sports medicine.
CCHC currently provides basic student health services to all CCCC students.
The agreement reflects services provided by Salina Regional Health Center that includes an onsite sports medicine clinic weekly as well as 24/7 on-call coverage for any medically-deemed emergent care needs for student athletes.
In other action taken during the meeting, the board voted to authorize the publication of the notice of the revenue neutral rate hearing and the notice of public hearing for the 2022-2023 certified budget.
The hearings are scheduled for September 6 at 5 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. in Room 257 of the President's Addition.
The proposed 2022-2023 budget calls for an estimated tax rate of 29.241 mills. That is unchanged from the actual tax rate in 2021-2022 and slightly lower than the rate of 29.256 in 2020-2021.
The Master Contract for the 2022-2023 fiscal year was approved by the board.
A wage increase of three percent to the base salary of each full-time administrative employee who was in their current position or have not received a compensation adjustment by April 1, 2022, was approved by the board.
Also approved was a wage increase of three percent to the wage of each full-time support staff employee and it was also approved that no wage for full-time support staff employee be below $12 per hour for those who were in their current position or have not received a compensation adjustment by April 1, 2022.
The board met in executive session for 15 minutes with Knoettgen, vice president for academic affairs Kim Zant, vice president of administrative services Caesar Wood, human resources director Chris Wilson and attorney Justin Ferrell, for the purpose of attorney/client privilege. No action was taken following the session.