Donations Upgrade Center Plans

Thu., March 19, 1998

By John Craig johnc@spokesman.com

Students at a new community college center here will have a paved parking lot and carpeted classrooms, thanks to a fund-raising drive that exceeded its goal.

Newport-area residents needed to raise $190,000 in cash and in-kind donations by April 1 to ensure construction of the classroom building. Donations already are at $230,000.

That means officials can restore some options that were eliminated earlier this year to keep costs down. Those include a better roof, a paved parking lot and classroom carpeting.

Civic and business leaders raised the money to entice Community Colleges of Spokane to retain classes in Newport and Washington State University to add some. Community college classes have been meeting in a portable building since losing their leased quarters last spring.

The donations will round out a $1.2 million project that is being financed by the Spokane Community Colleges Foundation. Construction of a 10,000-square-foot, seven-classroom building is to begin in May or June and be completed in October.

“The Pend Oreille Valley will now be able to better equip a work force for better jobs - a vital factor in attracting companies looking to relocate in the area,” said Jim Jeffers, executive director of the Pend Oreille County Economic Development Council.

He said the fund-raising goal seemed impossible when it was set last summer, but Newport and nearby Idaho communities got behind the project as a means to promote the local economy.

Students from the Oldtown and Priest River areas in Idaho will be allowed to attend the center for the same tuition as Washington residents, Jeffers said.

He said the fund-raising drive is continuing so the classrooms can be better equipped. Anyone interested in contributing should contact Gail Stevenson, executive director of the Spokane Community Colleges Foundation, at (509) 533-8613.

, DataTimes

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