L-A College will receive $2 million and Central Maine Community College will receive

$1.5 million.
By Lindsay Tice
Staff Writer

LEWISTON – At Lewiston-Auburn College, 1,800 students share a single building. Classrooms are consistently booked, and the parking lot is always overflowing. There is no space left for badly needed health facilities or extra science labs.

“There are just some major student resources we need,” said Zark VanZandt, dean of L-A College.

Across the river in Auburn, more than 1,800 Central Maine Community College students share four buildings, but the growing school has similar problems. Despite a recent addition, available classrooms are hard to come by. The college needs new lab space and equipment to keep students up-to-date in their fields.

With last week’s passage of a $19 million bond issue, both schools hope to expand.

“I’m thrilled. We really can put some solid plans together now,” said Charles Collins, dean of students at CMCC.

In the bond issue approved by Maine voters last Tuesday, the Maine Community College System gets $12 million and the University of Maine System gets $4.5 million. The Maine State Library gets $1.5 million and the Maine Maritime Academy receives $1 million.

L-A College will receive $2 million, nearly half of the University of Maine System’s $4.5 million.

Central Maine Community College will get $1.5 million, the third largest share of the Community College System’s $12 million.

Plans to expand, renovate

Both schools plan to use the money to expand and renovate, adding rooms and labs to cramped campuses.

L-A College will see the most dramatic expansion. Officials plan to use the $2 million to help buy the five-acre property next door. Depending on the results of an upcoming feasibility study, VanZandt said the school may put up a new building on the site or renovate the property’s current building.

It would also give the school some needed parking spaces. The building could give the campus some science labs, a child care center and a wellness center with a possible fitness facility, clinic and counseling center.

“There are many possibilities,” VanZandt said.

Right now, a counselor visits the campus once a week but has no office space. There is no clinic or first-aid center.

VanZandt said the school is putting together a team of people to look at uses and priorities for the new facility.

Officials believe the project will cost more than the $2 million from the bond, and they hope to raise additional money to pay for it.

VanZandt believes a new facility could be completed in the next two or three years.

Room for classes, labs

At CMCC, the bond’s $1.5 million will be used to renovate on old sheet-metal shop that was used for storage.

The space will be turned into classrooms and labs, which are desperately needed since the community college has seen huge increases in enrollment over the past few years.

“This for us will almost be the equivalent of a new building,” said College President Scott Knapp.

Without the renovation, Knapp said, the school likely would have been forced to put a cap on enrollment in the coming years.

“We would have had a hard time fitting everybody and everything we want to do on campus,” he said.

Along with the $1.5 million, CMCC will share in $600,000 set aside in the bond for new equipment throughout the community college system. For the Auburn campus, that will mean new computers and equipment to ensure that students are getting up-to-date information.

“Students use it and students really see the benefits of that immediately,” said Collins, the dean of students. “They step out of here into a workplace or business place, and they’ve done it. It’s not a retraining situation.”

Knapp said renovations should begin this summer and may be completed by the time school opens next fall. New equipment should be purchased this spring.

ltice@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link