Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 28, 1993 TAG: 9301280219
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: MADELYN ROSENBERG STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
VET SCHOOL GETS TECH'S 1ST BOND FUNDS
Virginia Tech's first construction funded by November's statewide bond issue is expected to begin next month.At the veterinary college, where administrators and professors have been waiting for years for $8.3 million to fund the final phase of their facilities, Dean Peter Eyre is quietly rejoicing.
"I've waited for this for eight years," Eyre said. "It's been at the top of my agenda the whole time I've been here."
The newest phase will cover 60,000 square feet and will provide new educational facilities for students, additional research laboratories and more clinical facilities for agricultural animals, Eyre said.
A new structure containing instructional and research space will be erected between two of the college's buildings. It will include new computer-based lab where students can use new technologies to study veterinary medicine.
Other additions include labs for the college's growing biomedical and clinical research programs and improvements to the large-animal hospital.
Construction of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine started in 1980.
At the time, it was to have been built in three phases, and the staff had hoped to see it completed in the 1980s - 1986 at the earliest.
But there were obstacles and the plans kept getting kicked back.
In 1989, plans for the final phase, which became known as Phase IV, were drawn up and ready to go. The project was next for Tech on the list of buildings to be funded by lottery money. But when state revenues fell short, the lottery money was funneled into the state general-fund budget and the project was postponed again.
"We've been stuck," Eyre said this week. "It's been nine years since we've received any state appropriations. Space has been one real problem we've never solved."
An accreditation team visited the campus three years ago and gave the college the nod provided the additional facilities would be built.
The team is due back at the school in October. "It'll be fine by then," Eyre said. "This won't be an issue now."
Construction will start as soon as the paperwork is done, said Lynn Avis, president of Avis Construction Co. Inc. of Roanoke. Avis came in with the lowest bid of 10 companies bidding on the project.
The region's first bond project to be put out to bid, renovations and additions to Radford University's library, also went to a Roanoke company.
All of the companies that bid on Tech's project were based in Virginia.
"To me, it's a relief to know it's going to a local Virginia company," Eyre said.
Avis said the project will create jobs "not only for us but for the subcontractors."
He was unsure Wednesday how many positions would be created by the project, but he expected to hire 10 to 12 people to get started.
The company also put in a bid on Roanoke's Virginia Western Community College's bond project Wednesday.
During the recession, Avis said, "we kept our head above water. We didn't lose anything, but certainly didn't make anything. We cut back."
The bond issue, which is to pay for $613 million in construction over five years, was supposed to help jump-start the economy.
"It definitely is doing that," Avis said. "If not for that, I don't know what we'd do."
The timing for the bond issue was good, proponents said, because colleges and other groups needing the construction could get good interest rates.
Avis' bid came in at $7.65 million, which was below the estimate. Tech will use the remaining money for related projects to help complete Phase IV. The entire project will cost $10 million; Tech is using federal and private money to make up the rest.