Allen Community College is facing a sort of “chicken-and-egg” question.
Do you improve housing to entice students, or bring in more students to support the need for improved housing?
The college’s dorms are aging and at least one may need to be replaced, but administrators also hope to build a new facility to expand Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs. They likely will have to decide between the two.
Allen’s maintenance director Ryan Sigg met with the board of trustees and administrators last week to talk about projects at Horton and Winter halls, the college’s oldest dormitories built in the 1970s.
Efforts to repair multiple areas have been stymied because the parts are often obsolete.
For example, a recirculating pump for a potable hot water heater went bad. After an extensive search, Sigg found “probably the only pump in Kansas” at a cost of $2,500.
Bruce Moses, Allen president, noted the recent repairs have been quite expensive.
“When something goes wrong, we cross our fingers and hope we can get the part or jerry-rig it to fix it,” Moses said.
“We try to update these old buildings with new technology when the infrastructure isn’t designed to fit it.”
The 50-year-old buildings aren’t energy efficient, which adds to costs.
Tonya Johnson, vice president for finance and operations, said the buildings may have reached the point where it might cost less to replace them than it would to repair them to a level comparable to other colleges.
Meanwhile, Allen needs to be proactive in repairs to its newer living facilities such as Masterson Hall, built in 2006. It and other housing complexes, such as the Red Devil Duplexes, need upgrades such as new windows, updated bathrooms and interior painting.
Moses proposed the board establish a deferred maintenance fund to allow crews to prioritize funding for those projects.
BOARD members and administrators also expect newer dorms would be more competitive with similar-sized colleges and could attract more students.
That’s when Moses sounded a note of caution. Allen has discussed plans for a new CTE building, and he anticipates asking the board to approve funding for that.
