CCCC trustees approve items for renovation of Children’s Center

Two items connected to the renovation of the Children's Center and a pair of grant applications tied to the effort to raise funds for the construction of a new technical education and innovation center facility were approved by the Cloud County Community College board of trustees during its regular meeting on Tuesday night.
The board approved a base bid of $32,822.35 from Hood Heating, Air, Plumbing & Electric, which includes a 15 percent contingency, for the installation of a new outside water line at the Tech West facility in preparation for renovation of the Children's Center.
The city code and local ordinances require the Children's Center facility to be upgraded to current regulations after consultation with the State Fire Marshal.
Installation of the new water line will allow the college to install a sprinkler system, fire alarm system and additional restrooms needed for the project.
The estimated cost of the renovations is $530,000.
Cloud County Community College (CCCC) has received $400,000 from the Cloud County Community College Foundation, $100,000 from the Dane G. Hansen Foundation, and $30,000 from the Childcare Aware Grant for the project.
Also approved by the board during the meeting was the purchase of the fire alarm system in the amount of $34,805 and authorizing payment from Fund 82 – Children's Center.
The purchase of the fire alarm would be awarded using the State of Kansas procurement contract with Tech Electronics of Kansas as the vendor. The purchase price includes equipment, consultation, one checkout of the fire alarm control panel and all field devices, one wiring layout drawing per electrical contractor's conduit or cable routing and typical device connection drawings.
The board approved the submission of a U.S. Department of Agriculture RISE grant application in the amount of $750,000, to include a match from the college of $150,000 from the board of trustees fund, to help fund the construction of a 33,750-square-foot technical education and innovation center.
The RISE grant supports construction of innovation centers that develop a base of skilled workers and improve their opportunities to obtain high wage jobs in new or existing local industries. This is a benefit to a rural jobs accelerator partnership with a focus on an industry cluster.
CCCC will be partnering with Cloud County Health Center to focus on the nursing industry cluster for the grant opportunity
The board also approved a request from the CCCC Foundation to apply for the Kansas Department of Commerce Building a Stronger Economy (BASE) grant in the amount of $6 million, with the $1.5 million match from the foundation.
The BASE grant supports infrastructure investments associated with economic development projects to achieve the goal of expanding the state's base of businesses and residents.
The proposed technical education and innovation center would be located on College Drive and would house the college's renewable energy, nursing and agriculture and industry program.
In other action taken during the meeting, the board approved waiving policies to allow the consumption of alcohol in the Dunning-Hamel Baseball Training Facility on April 2. The college is hosting a baseball alumni reunion.
Included in the consent items approved by the board was renewing the contract of head wrestling coach Julian Smith, who is in his first year.
The board met in executive session for 20 minutes for the purpose of attorney/client privilege.