Curry Campus

COOS BAY, OR – Southwestern Oregon Community College’s Board of Education unanimously accepted a bid for construction of the new Curry Campus in Brookings at Monday night’s meeting.

The low bidder was Ausland Builders of Medford. Total cost of the entire project is $6,061,000. Ausland Builders was successful in soliciting qualified bids from local contractors and plans to award over $1.8 million (30%) in contracts to Brookings contractors, and over $3.6 million (60%) in contracts to contractors located within 90 miles of the site.

“We are grateful that Ausland Builders is showing preference to local contractors,” said Cherie Mitchell, Board member and Curry County resident.“

“We are grateful that Ausland Builders is showing preference to local contractors,” said Cherie Mitchell, Board member and Curry County resident. “We recognize that this is an economic stimulus for Curry County.”

The top three bids were within $120,000 of each other.

The project requires extensive site preparation, most of which would need to be done during dry summer months. The area has already been logged and additional site work is expected to continue this month.

Since Curry County voted to rejoin the Southwestern district in 1995, the college has actively looked for land and resources to build a Curry Campus. In 2001, the college began working with US Borax (now a subsidiary of Rio Tinto) to include the Curry Campus on their Lone Ranch development. The Curry Campus Detailed Development Plan was approved on September 1, 2009 and the donation of 10 acres of land was finalized on February 4, 2010.

The new Curry Campus will be a two-story, 26,785 square foot building designed with all of the features needed for 21st Century learning. The facility will be equipped with wireless internet and sited/designed to maximize sustainability options. The seven classrooms will include an allied health suite supporting expanded nursing, basic nursing assistant, medical assistant and EMT training; a science lab; a computer lab; and, classrooms with SMART technology and IPV connectivity. Support areas will include dedicated areas for tutoring, studying, and testing, a resource area for students to link with on-line resources, and a faculty teaching and learning center. The two-story commons and small over-looking student lounge will provide spaces for students, teachers and the community to gather and a student government/club office will provide planning space to incubate an active, engaged student body.

The facility is also being designed as a community hub for short-term training and conferences. The community wing can be used for college classes, but easily transitions into a conference area. Its two large rooms can each be divided into two smaller rooms. It also offers an after-hours entrance/reception area and access to a catering/demonstration kitchen. Larger events can utilize the nearby two-story commons area. The community wing will provide a new and sorely needed venue for large public and private gatherings in Curry County, and is being designed so that the regular work of the college can continue with minimal disruption when it is in use for those events.

In 2005, the State of Oregon allocated $2.3 million in matching funds for the construction of the Curry Campus. Those moneys, plus the match must be spent by June 2011. On April 24, 2010, the Board authorized a bond sale that included Recovery Zone Economic Development Bonds (RZED). These bonds provide a 45% federal rebate of interest paid to bond holders, which will save the college up to $1 million in interest expense over the life of the bonds. The bond sale was also set up to take advantage of current short-term and long-term debts as they are freed up, so no new General Fund budget allocation will be needed to service the debt.

As of June 1, 2010, $181,467.80 has been pledged for the Curry Campus through the ongoing capital fundraising campaign. Fundraising will continue through the construction process.

“This allows us to build the entire building, but there is still a need to furnish and equip it,” noted Mitchell. “We will still need to fundraise to ensure the facility has everything needed to educate and serve our students.”

Once built, the Curry Campus will be 107 miles from Southwestern's Coos Bay Campus and 144 miles from the nearest Oregon university, making it an essential hub of educational opportunity for this isolated region of the state. When it opens, Curry classes and programs will be housed under one roof, unifying the efforts of staff and creating the synergy and collaboration needed to build vibrant collegiate programs, a well trained workforce, and resilient communities for Curry County.