DATE: Wednesday, October 15, 1997           TAG: 9710150500

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B6   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY NIA NGINA MEEKS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   58 lines

TECH CENTER PROPOSAL TO BE STUDIED

The City Council offered a cautious show of support Tuesday for a $23 million Tidewater Community College-Beach Schools technical center.

It was a baby step toward creating a new tech center, an idea folks have batted around since 1994. The existing Technical and Career Center on North Landing Road is 25 years old and growing less sophisticated by the year.

On Tuesday morning, School Superintendent Timothy R. Jenney and other members of the exploratory committee made a presentation in an informal council session. They outlined the purpose, cost and need for such an institution.

Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf asked the city manager's office to draft a study on how the city could jigger priorities to find up to $13 million needed to cover its share of costs for the center.

Councilwoman Nancy K. Parker, who served on the exploratory committee, asked that the School Board also look for things to re-prioritize in its budget plans. Jenney assured her that the board would do so.

The city study should be done in time for the next formal council meeting, Oct. 28.

That was later than interim TCC president Tim Kerr had hoped for, because he wanted a city commitment to take to Thursday's Virginia Community College System board meeting. That board meets bi-monthly.

``It's getting pretty tight,'' Kerr told the council.

``Around here, that's moving pretty fast,'' Linwood O. Branch III countered.

TCC wants to go full throttle with the project because it will need time to revamp a proposal for the college board. An initial TCC request for $8 million for a 51,000-square-foot building for classes and labs already made the board's needs list. It took 10 years to get on that list.

Next, the governor has to review that list and pluck projects that he deems worthy for his biennial budget. The General Assembly later would review that budget and pass or trash items in it.

Kerr said making the needs list is a strong indicator that the $8 million is going to the bank. If that request is going to be revamped to include the tech center plans, it needs to get to Richmond as soon as possible to improve its chances for funding. A ``good faith'' pledge from the city to help fund the center also would improve those chances, Kerr said.

The hope is to shoot for $10 million from the state for this project. Corporate money, foundation grants and the city would make up the other $13 million. The total $23 million would fund construction of a 137,193-square-foot complex on the Beach campus on Princess Anne Road. About a third of that space would be dedicated to TCC.

The rest would house a variety of technical education programs.

The price covers design, construction, equipment, inspection and incidentals.

The mayor, City Manager James K. Spore and other council members appeared in favor of the project with some reservations - all fiscal. A pledge of support would not mean that money is in hand at the moment. In fact, Jenney said, funding wouldn't need to be in place until 1999 at the earliest.

Adding the center also would bring about $275,000 in additional operating costs to the district, Jenney said.

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