Allen Community College trustees met last week to form a planning committee as they start taking steps to build a new activity center.
Brian Counsil, who serves as Vice President for Finance and Operations, said administrators met Wednesday and formed an eight-person committee who will meet with a design/build company this week to draw out what the school wants.
Basically, all we decided at the meeting (July 10) was what kinds of bells and whistles we want this building to have and our wants and needs. We talked about possible donations and tossed around several ideas, Counsil said. But we still havent even discussed a budget. That will become much clearer when we invite a design/build company in for our next meeting, who will show us what they can build for us. We also discussed possible partnership opportunities. We just want a building that better serves our students and student athletes,
The school is scheduled to hold another meeting later this week.
He did not provide any further details about the potential partnership, but did say that President John Masterson did meet with someone from the City of Iola last week. Masterson, who is out of the office this week, was unavailable for comment.
The Activity Center — an 1,800 square foot building — was built in 1985 and the school added a fitness center to the facility in 1989.
Other schools in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference have recently opened new activity centers. Neosho County Community College in Chanute just purchased a 64,000 square foot manufacturing building and converted 12,000 square feet of the building into an indoor practice facility for its athletic program on Jan. 1 of this year.
