OGDEN -- With no fanfare, Ogden-Weber Area Technical College President Collette R. Mercier became the first person to sign the final beam to be placed Friday in the college's new health building.
The beam was painted white and laid out on a couple of sawhorses. It was on a rise of ground near the construction site, but everyone there for the party stayed over by picnic tables waiting for the barbecue lunch.
Then Mercier and two members of the college's foundation board wandered over, picked up pens and signed. After her was Rex Child, the longest-serving member of the foundation board, and Ted Johnstun, the newest member.
However informal, signing the beam was the point of the day. The final beam means workers are ready to put the outer skin on the building and start finishing the interior.
When finished, the health building will mark a number of mileposts for the ATC:
* The college's health programs will double in size to more than 1,000 students.
* The building will include, for the first time, an extension of Weber State University's registered nurse program. Students in the ATC practical nurse program will be able to become registered nurses without changing campuses.
* This is the first new building to go up since the ATC moved to its current site in 1985. Because of that, Mercier said this was also the first time the ATC had to do any aggressive fundraising for a new building.
The 88,000-square-foot building is scheduled to be finished June 1, 2011. Its cost is $21.9 million, including $1.3 million from private funds.
Mercier said the college raised funds to show the Legislature it was deserving of state help to build. Lead donors Samuel C. and Myra G. Powell Foundation chose to name the building in honor of Samuel H. and Marian K. Barker, long-time advocates of health education. More than 50 other foundations and individuals have donated to date.
Mercier said she's particularly proud that the building meets LEED Gold certification for environmentally friendly construction.
"The state requires all new buildings to be LEED Silver, but we said this is going to be our health building, we intend it to be as healthy as possible," she said.
Complementing the LEED certification, given by the U.S. Green Building Council, is a program to plant 140 trees around the building. The ATC is offering to allow people to dedicate those trees in exchange for $500 donations.
Lee Nelson, a counselor in the health programs, walked up to sign the beam. He is excited for the new building because it also will allow the ATC to double the number of nursing students it can teach, to 60.
"Our program has been crowded into the bottom of the business building," he said. His office has to be in a separate building, which makes it hard to work with the students he counsels.
In addition to nursing, the new building will be home to programs to teach dental assistants, medical assistants, nursing assistants, clinical laboratory workers, health information technology and others. It will also include a faculty resource center.
ATC Development Director Karen Thurber said the center could also eventually include a public clinic where the indigent can get dental cleanings.
Comments