Area success story about to expand
Coalition of city, TVCC resources helps with Caldwell Center growth
By Larry Meyer
Argus Observer
Tuesday, July 1, 2008 10:37 AM PDT
| |
| Katie Evans, Caldwell, stands in front of the current Caldwell Center. Treasure Valley Community College officials confirmed a new facility for the satellite education center will be built in Caldwell. |
CALDWELL — A cooperative effort between the city of Caldwell, the East Caldwell Urban Renewal Agency and Treasure Valley Community College will fix the groundwork for a new facility for the Caldwell Center.
The Caldwell Center, a satellite campus of TVCC, shrugged off a slow start several years ago and experienced steady growth. The growth, though, has forced college officials to search for a way to find a larger facility.
Now, through the cooperative effort, a project to build a new TVCC Caldwell Center will begin this summer.
TVCC President Dr. Jim Sorensen confirmed last week construction of the two-story facility is currently planned to start in August.
When complete the college will use 15 to 18 rooms, one of which will be a science lab.
“There will be a big lecture hall. Most of the (college’s) rooms will be on the second floor,” he said. “The city will cover the rent for five years.”
At the end of the five- year span officials hope the center will be self-supporting. The college does not receive any support, from either Idaho or Oregon, for its Caldwell operation and so it must operate off of student tuition and fees. As a state institution, TVCC cannot use any money from Oregon to fund the center.
“It will be a rental facility,” Sorensen said. “It’s a change in location. We’re running out of square footage.”
College officials have been looking at several buildings in the Caldwell area for more than a year to find a location to expand the number of courses and classes it offers to people in the Nampa-Caldwell area, including space at the College of Idaho.
“We’re busting out all over,” Sorensen said.
The current location was never designed to be a school, but a business center, he said, and does not have adequate parking.
Originally invited by the Idaho Migrant Council to provide classes to its clients, the current Caldwell Center is situated just off of the Nampa-Caldwell Boulevard, between the two communities, near the Larry Miller Auto Center. Its focus has been primarily on transfer courses for students planning to go on to Boise State University, Northwest Nazarene University or another four-year university, and developmental courses.
“We are very much in touch with students,” Abby Lee, TVCC public information director, said about what attracts students to the center. “We have a reputation for helping people. We were invited to go to Caldwell.”
Caldwell’s connection with TVCC began before the Caldwell Center, which has been open for about five years, Sorensen said. Several city and community leaders have attended TVCC or have had relatives who have attended TVCC.
“I’ve been surprised by how much impact TVCC has had in the (Caldwell) area,” Sorensen said.
Popeye wrote on Jul 2, 2008 2:29 PM:
As the writer tells us, I thought it was a reasonable interpretation by an ancient court that, gun rights are only for local militias not individuals. I went on to make my own interpretation to think of T-shirts and exposed skin for mosquitoes. Go ahead you summer suckers, I won't invite any gun nut to my backyard barbeque. Witness the intensity of any gun nut and their first claim is to be a hunter. If they don't start frothing at the mouth with their convictions, they'll next have a little show & tell. They'll pull out a pocket Howitzer and transform themselves into some kind of cartoon macho-man with a crazed look in their eyes. I wonder how fast they'll be on the draw if they ever need it for self-defense? Any nut like that needs to get rolled if only for the moment that brings them back to their senses. "