Allen Community College trustees gave the green light Tuesday to complete an ongoing security upgrade throughout the Iola campus.
The college will spend $659,000 to beef up the security on interior doors throughout the campus, as well as to install the necessary software and hardware to convert the college from keyed locks to electronically controlled access.
Ryan Sigg, plant operations director, spoke to trustees alongside Jacob Strecker and Shawn Corkill of INA Alert of Ellinwood, Kan., which specializes in security systems for a wide variety of clients.
Over the past several years, crews have taken steps to make ACC’s facilities more secure.
The first phase incorporated new exterior doors. Phase 2 centered on dorm rooms and student housing.
The third, and by far the largest, phase focuses on pretty much everything else.
With the new system, the college can more easily program when doors are locked and unlocked. Employees and students will be given access cards instead of keys. The college also will be to monitor who’s accessing various rooms.
And in the event of emergency, the entire campus, or designated areas, can be locked down at the touch of a button, Sigg noted.
“We’re trying to create an environment of safety and security without being a nuisance,” Strecker said.
Additionally, the door locks will be integrated with the college video security system.
More than $400,000 of the total will go toward wireless mortar locks to 173 interior doors, providing programmable card access. Another $130,000 will pay for hardware installation and software configuration.
As an aside, the new hardware will make the doors more accessible for disabled users, because old round doorknobs are not ADA compliant, Sigg noted.
The funds for the project have been planned for the 2026-27 fiscal year, and will be paid out as work progresses.
Strecker and Corkill told trustees it will take several months for such a mammoth project.
SPEAKING of mammoth projects, the trustees voted to work with Millig Design Build of Lenexa to upgrade ACC’s climate control systems within the Iola campus.
Engineers targeted the college’s aging 2-pipe water heating and cooling system — integral in controlling the HVAC units — as in need of replacement during a top-to-bottom facilities study last year.
