Cloverdale subdivision may get sewer hook-up

Officials with Ivy Tech Community College say they are still on target to construct a new Greencastle campus by 2010 despite a brief setback in the planning earlier this year.

Ivy Tech Region 7 Chancellor Jeff Pittman, with the Terre Haute campus, said Wednesday that Ivy Tech's board of trustees recently handed down its list of projects to complete in the next 10 years and that Greencastle had moved up to second position behind Fort Wayne.

"That was great news," Pittman told the BannerGraphic on Wednesday. "I was very pleased."

Planning for the Greencastle campus was temporarily halted in January after the State Budget Committee ordered the college to seek an independent needs assessment for all of its 23 Indiana campuses. Officials had said the study may be completed by April, but Pittman said this week that it might not be completed until June.

Still Ivy Tech officials are planning to go to the state legislature in early 2007 to ask for funding to construct the Greencastle campus which is projected to cost between $8 million and $10 million. It will be constructed in two main phases, the first scheduled to begin in as little as two years and the second to commence three or four years after that, or when student enrollment exceeds available space.

Phase I of the project calls for a 42,000-square-foot complex of buildings, the main structure being a two-story building for classrooms, labs and other student learning areas. Next to it will be a much smaller building to house a bookstore, copy room and storage area along with a library for students.

Pittman said this week that a feasibility study, intended to help Ivy Tech determine the local demand for classes and services of the new campus, is nearing completion, along with planning for a capital campaign.

Officials hope to raise approximately $2 million to pay for technology and equipment needed for the new building. Those figures will be made public once they are available.

The community college of 100,000 students announced in 2004 that it wanted to build a new facility to replace the one currently shared with Area 30 Career Center and F.B. Distro on Indianapolis Road.

They fixed their sites on 40 acres of land located on the southeast corner of Veterans Memorial Highway and First Street, across from Greencastle Middle School. The city-owned land was originally intended for industrial development but was later earmarked for recreational purposes and given the name Rokicki Park.

Last year the city agreed to give a portion of the land needed for the college to Ivy Tech with the idea that the city would keep space to eventually construct a combination fire station and community center. City officials are in the process of seeking grant money to help with the construction of the fire station and community center.

Currently Ivy Tech Greencastle has around 400 students at its Indianapolis Road location. The new campus will put the school in a position to handle student enrollment which is projected to be around 1,100 by 2015.

The building will also include space for up to 38 staff members.