Community college looks at building options

By FULLER ROYAL

Southeastern Community College is considering its options for a new bio-agriculture facility, now that the sale of the county’s shell building is all but a done deal.

The shell building, in the Southeast Regional (Industrial) Park just east of SCC, is being purchased by Ever Fresh Inc., along with 25 additional acres of land for use as a soybean processing plant.

Ever Fresh, which will ship the soybeans to Asian markets, will pay the county $1 million for the facility and employ 40 people. More than 150,000 acres of soybeans will be needed annually to meet the processing needs.

SCC, which will begin one of the state’s first training programs this fall for the burgeoning bio-agriculture industry, had set its sights on the building and had even received a $3 million grant to purchase the property and convert it into a classroom and lab facility.

SCC President Kathy Matlock said when the shell building is sold, SCC’s board would look at its options, including the possibility of building a new facility, using the $3 million grant provided by the General Assembly.

“We have started discussions about what we will do on this campus if we do not get the shell building,” she said. “We may build another building on the campus. We can use the space.”

SCC would not begin construction on a bio-ag facility until the new technology building is underway.

The latter was approved several years ago when North Carolinians passed the university and community college bond, which provided several million dollars for SCC.

The technology building will be built on the east side of the campus, near T Building.

“We will soon break ground on the technology building,” Matlock said. “We were meeting with contractors the other day and looking at electrical and other things.”

In addition to the possibility of construction underway on campus next fall, the college might see its ranks increase with the addition of the Southeast Early College, the new early college high school for city and county students.

The proposal for SEC has yet to be approved by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction.

If approval comes, 100 selected students will call SCC home next fall.

Matlock said the existing facilities would comfortably house the students. Students would use the same classroom facilities in each of the buildings as the college students.

“Our feeling is that the most important aspect of the students being here is their relationship with the rest of the college,” Matlock said. “The one thing we do not want to do is set them aside. We don’t want them stuck at the end of the building. We want to embed them in college.”