Missouri government grant funding helped Ozarks Technical Community College increase the size of a new classroom building for its Christian County campus.
The college’s Board of Trustees on Jan. 10 approved increasing the size of a classroom building by 2,960 square feet for an additional cost of $312,948 to contractor Branco Enterprises, and an additional $11,000 to designer Paragon Architecture.
The new building at Richwood Valley, on Highway 14 on the western edge of Ozark, will be used for a program that trains students for electrical line maintenance and repair. The expansion is possible because construction bids came in surprisingly low when the project went out to bid last fall — most of the project is funded by state grants.
“We actually designed and redesigned that building with initial costs exceeding $5 million,” said Rob Rector, OTC vice chancellor for administrative services, during Wednesday’s meeting. “We went out and got favorable bids, and it dropped it to a position where we were at less than $5 million.”
OTC is receiving a MoExcels grant for $2.5 million, which requires a 50/50 match. The college is also receiving a $1,712,580 grant from the Economic Development Association, and that money can be used to meet the 50/50 match of the MoExcels grant, Rector said.
Rector said the expansion of the classroom building allows the college to use more of that grant money to make a bigger space for two popular programs.
“Quite honestly, the program needed the space, and it was an opportunity,” Rector said.
With the expansion, the building will be about 20,000 square feet, and the new project cost is estimated at $4,842,492.44. According to documentation provided to OTC board members, the college will look at additional needs for the line worker program, as well as agricultural programs, in order to use all available grant funds.
OTC has already broken ground for the classroom building intended to house its electrical distribution systems program and agricultural programs. When trustees approved the building project in October 2023, it was designed with four classrooms, a garage area, offices and a student commons area.
Wednesday’s expansion allows for the addition of a garage bay that can be used for storage or instruction.
The electrical line and agriculture programs were merged at Richwood Valley because of their synergy, said Matt Hudson, executive dean of technical education, in October.
The line worker program was started in 2018 at its Lebanon campus, and has become a high-demand program. Students earn an associate’s degree that teaches skills such as working with live power lines, pole climbing, transformer operation and earning a commercial driver’s license.
Unlike OTC's Lebanon campus, the Richwood Valley campus did not have a dedicated indoor space for instruction. The program features dozens of utility poles — an array that has been nicknamed “Polehenge.”
The building is projected to be completed and ready for classes in January 2025.
