A number of Odessa College’s Vision 2030+ projects are going on now and they tie in with the institution’s goal of reaching 10,000 students.
“It’s all about how do we build the infrastructure to support OC 10,000 and getting … because we’re going to be there before you know it,” Vice President of Administrative Services Ken Zartner said. “Some of our biggest projects are the Wood Health Sciences Building, which is in its beginning phases right now.”
The $40 million, four-story building will cover 83,000 square feet. Plans are to open the building in fall 2023.
“We awarded a contract to MW Builders … two board meetings ago, since we just had them on last week. So about five weeks ago. They’ve been working on all of their permits and everything that they need to start the project. …,” Zartner said.
“… We’re 543 days, as of today, from completion on that project,” he added.
When occupants of the current Health Sciences Building are relocated, Zartner said OC hopes to outfit it into an early college high school facility.
“You can utilize both floors, and you wouldn’t think that it’s big enough to do it; but there are almost 39 classrooms and spaces in there, which is pretty similar to the size of our early college high schools right now. And then you would also utilize other areas on campus to support their needs, as well, like we currently do. So it really helps with some space utilization that we’ve been desperately needing,” Zartner added.
At this point, this is still in the planning stages.
James Segrest Stadium is another signature project. A $6.5 million capital campaign was launched for it in October 2021.
Phase I, which was the field turf, was completed around spring break, Zartner said.
“… We’re currently in our planning for Phase II of … the stadium which would include stadium seating on both the east and west end, the main entryway. The concession stands, the main entrance, the fencing and all of those projects,” he added.
The architect, JSA, has almost completed that work and is ready to move forward, but there is more work to come. Zartner anticipates that Phase II will probably take about 14 months to finish, so people can’t use the track yet.
“It’s a lot of flat work. It’s a lot of electrical work …,” Zartner said.
The Downtown Project at 222 E. Fourth St. is also close to starting, Zartner said.
Phase I is the large green space, the two performance canopies, the entryway, the splash pad, the restrooms and other items.
“… I would anticipate us breaking that ground on Phase I within the next couple of months. We may even have a groundbreaking for that this month (May). … The completion of that project, because it’s more flat work and landscaping, is not going to be too long and it might be ready in anywhere from eight to 10 months,” Zartner said.
He added that the sound system at the Odessa College Sports Center has been upgraded. It took about three days to complete the work, but about a year and a half to obtain the equipment because of supply chain issues.
“We had 20-plus-year-old equipment in there and technology has changed so much,” Zartner said.
In Pecos, the college did a remodel on its campus .
“… We took the huge storage shop there that had no central air and heat and created all the HVAC systems and enclosed those areas so that we can host several different courses and classrooms,” he said.
In Monahans, OC was able to work out a deal to take over a small gymnasium that was adjacent to its campus there.
“It was a 1950s elementary school gymnasium. We finished the remodel job on that … which is now community center that we can host a variety of different events …,” Zartner said.
Last month, OC partnered with a vendor to upgrade its HVAC systems in the Sports Center just to upgrade the infrastructure.
“When you look into HVAC systems, you’re going back to the late 70s, or early 80s. The technology that it needs to operate no longer exists, so when parts break or things go down, we have to completely try to figure it out to rebuild it. There’s a lot of little projects that we have going on right now that are all about Vision 2030,” Zartner said.
“Another project that we have going on … right now is in Sedate Hall. We took the old machine shop and we’re currently reworking it to remodel it to support future needs and programs,” such as construction management and process technology, he added.
The Vision 2030 master plan includes building additional student housing.
The housing would not only be to support athletes, but students from OC’s extension sites.
“It’s hard to drive from Presidio to here every single day if you need to … or Even even Monahans … I think there’s definitely need for housing in our community all over the place and our housing probably pretty affordable for students. So it’s definitely in the plans, but that’s another $15 million, probably, facility as well,” Zartner said.
On reaching 10,000 students, Zartner said OC could handle it with “creative solutions,” such as hybrid courses and with scheduling.
“… You can have five different classes in one classroom throughout the day if you schedule it accordingly. So we’re getting as creative as we possibly can to maximize that. Online education has changed a lot of things as well. It helps out quite a bit, but you need a lot of the facilities just to support,” Zartner said.
“Think about welding, we have we we have some huge welding labs; more welding bays than probably most community colleges in the state. I’ve been to some really nice career tech facilities and we have three or four times as many welding labs. … If we had twice as many of them, we could still fill those classes because the need. Those facilities require a whole lot of space,” he added.
Zartner said as new businesses come to town and need specialized training, Odessa College tries to accommodate them.
“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, but I think we’re getting there …,” he added.
