Three Rivers set to receive grant to build safe rooms

POPLAR BLUFF, Mo. -- Three Rivers Community College is poised to receive a $3.3 million grant to go toward constructing safe rooms at its Poplar Bluff and Sikeston, Mo., locations, to offer temporary tornado protection to the campus communities.

The building on the main campus would double as an event center if the board reaches a consensus at the November meeting, and the centerpiece of Three Rivers' future eastern campus is proposed to serve as a smaller scale conference center.

A $1.1 million match will be required to complete the federally funded portion of the projects, pending final approval from the Federal Emergency Action Agency, anticipated to take place in the coming weeks upon renewal of the Butler County natural hazard mitigation plan, according to officials.

"When do we break ground?" board treasurer Randy Winston asked during the board meeting Wednesday.

Consultant engineer with Toth & Associates of Springfield, Mo., Brian Orr, said there would be a 30-month window to complete the safe room from the time Dr. Devin Stephenson, Three Rivers president, signs off on the agreement.

Stephenson suggested a year of that time might be used to launch an external capital fundraising campaign for the Three Rivers Event Center, although it was not yet announced how much the entire project is expected to cost.

The not-for-profit Three Rivers Endowment Trust has begun seeking donors for the building project in Sikeston, to be on a 38-acre tract of land southeast of the U.S. 60 and 61 interchange that was donated by the Scott Matthews family in May. The site, a mile from Interstate 55, will eventually replace the rented classroom facility on Kathleen Street.

College's 'front door'

Yesterday, Ben Traxel, architect with Dille & Traxel, unveiled the preliminary master plan for the main campus, which revolves around a grand entrance off Shelby Road. Stephenson has been in discussions with Dr. Richard Camp, the owner of the property west of Three Rivers, to donate a portion of the wooded land between the new road and the main campus parking lot that would serve as the community college's premier "front door."

The first building people would see when entering campus from this possible third entryway would be the event center, designed to serve as a 2,200-seat state-of-the-art arena, becoming the new home for Raiders basketball, adjoining the Bess Activity Center, together totaling nearly 50,000 square feet. The current gym would be converted to a conference center for functions such as seminars, workshops, banquets and exhibitions, according to the proposal.

The two-story structure -- complete with up to two basketball courts, corporate sky boxes and locker rooms, as well as athletic training facilities, green rooms, concessions, a box office and a walking track -- would "provide the college with the ability to be entrepreneurial in nature," according to Stephenson.

"There's a lot of things we can attract to this area if we're creative in this manner," Stephenson said. Examples of events that could be hosted there, the president said, include regional high school tournaments and even professional sports league games.

"Just sharing a dream," Stephenson said. The reality, he later said, is that startup funding for brick and mortar like this does not come across often for higher education institutions.

Other elements of the master plan include new parking areas around the grand entrance and other vacant areas throughout the campus' 80 acres, a road system encircling all the buildings as a whole, with an area for future growth north of the Tinnin Fine Arts Center and east of Roger Pattillo Field.

"You always have to be looking toward the future," Traxel said.

The board hired Dille & Traxel of Poplar Bluff in April. Three Rivers had received a citation from the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools in 2008 for not addressing repeat findings from a decade prior that included the lack of a campus master plan.

"This is extremely important to our reaccreditation process," board chair Marion Tibbs reminded his fellow trustees.

IN OTHER BUSINESS, THE BOARD:

• Received a written response to a proposed lease agreement for the E.K. Porter Distance Learning Center, to which the Three Rivers Community College Foundation retains the title.

Judy Scott, foundation executive director, stated that the overseeing board is "exploring a variety of options available to it for the future use of the building." The not-for-profit organization anticipates a firm decision for an agreement with the community college after the first of the year, she wrote.

• Appointed Three Rivers board secretary Wilbur Thornton to take Tibbs' place as the liaison of the Endowment Trust.

This week, the community college posted an announcement to replace Thornton as manager of the Poplar Bluff License Bureau that the Endowment Trust operates, presumably to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

• Unanimously adopted updated policies dealing with conflicts of interest, and record retention and destruction.

• Unanimously approved the hiring of Deana Carter as business office assistant; Deanna Whitlow and Krystal Williams, both as cashiers; Tonya Webb as coordinator of student financial services; and Emily Parks as director of development.

• Accepted the resignation of Rodney Hackwith, allied health coordinator.