ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9604010093
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
Community college to get new building
WYTHEVILLE - Wytheville Community College will have a new $3.9 million Learning Resource Center by spring 1998.
Work on the 27,000-square-foot building is scheduled to start late this summer. It will house the college's library, Continuing Education and Instructional Technology Departments, two electronic classrooms and new faculty office space.
The structure, near the center of the campus, will be the college's second-largest building. The center will become a formal entrance to the college, through an additional parking area and landscaping planned for its northern side. Visitors will enter through a glass-enclosed vestibule opening onto a wide vaulted-ceiling hallway running through the building's center.
"This has not been a quick and easy project," state Sen. Jack Reasor, D-Bluefield, said earlier this month when the project was announced. "We were this year finally able to obtain the funding necessary."
"It not only serves this campus, but it is an economic development incentive," said Del. Tom Jackson, D-Hillsville. "If we're going to compete" for new industry, he said, "we need a facility that can access information."
More than 10,000 square feet in the western side of the building will be the new location for the library, now occupying about 6,000 square feet in Bland Hall.
The new library will have a learning lab, space for the F.B. Kegley Library with local history and genealogy, and be able to access other electronic databases in other public colleges and universities in the state.
The eastern part will house the Continuing Education Department, now in Carroll Hall, and the college's Audio Visual/Instructional Technology Department.
The building's electronic classrooms will be used for distance learning in which courses taught elsewhere can be offered here with audio and video interaction between students and teachers. The college plans to produce its own distance learning courses for delivery elsewhere. The classrooms will also enhance teleconferencing training.
Fincastle Hall, the college's first building, was completed in 1968, followed by Bland and Carroll Halls in 1971, Galax Hall in 1973 and Grayson Hall in 1984.
Grant will fund small-business loans
WYTHEVILLE - Wythe County has gotten a $500,000 grant to help its Industrial Development Authority create a revolving loan fund for small businesses.
Loans can be used to expand existing businesses or create new ones. The money came through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Economic and Community Development Administration and the efforts of Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Abingdon.
Boucher said creation of the revolving loan fund coincides with the county's plans to develop a second industrial park.
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