Construction: engaged

Lilly Montero, @Lilly_Montero3

Construction for the Kinesiology/Athletics building and Student Union Complex made significant progress over the summer. Both structu

res can be seen looming large and proud, facing parking lot B.

The Kinesiology/Athletics building will house a physical education facility, including classrooms, a weight and cardio room, offices for faculty as well as other much needed accommodations. The Student Union Complex will be a center for group meetings and various learning communities.

The Student Union is going to be a tremendous addition to the campus in support of student life, clubs, and organizations,” said LMC President Bob Kratochvil.

The project is expected to finish on its projected date of August 2019.

“We are working closely with our project management team and the general contractor to make sure we minimize any negative impacts to the campus community,” said Alex Porter, Vice President of Business and Administrative Services.

Additionally, construction of a new Police Services building has been well under way for so

me months now.

The project, which officially broke ground last April, is projected to be finished and available for use this coming October. Construction of the Police Services building has a sooner finishing date than the Kinesiology/Athletics and Student Union Complex construction, not only because it is a smaller building and but also because the structure was built off-site first. Building the structure this way has been beneficial to ensuring a timely finish to a much needed update.

This method is a lower cost method to construct quality buildings that are somewhat simple in nature,” Porter said.

Senior Traffic Officer, Michael Hotton expressed that the project has been a long time coming. The current Police Services building is a small office located on the bottom most level of the college complex. Twenty employees working in such a small space has not been conducive to visibility and safety, Hotton pointed out.

“The absolute benefit for us is that we are visible… Visibility is huge on [an open campus,]” Hotton said. “It gives people peace of mind just driving by and seeing that there’s a police station that’s accessible to them and everybody knows where it is.”

With the new Police Services building facing parking lot A, campus police will also have a better response time to emergencies, Hotton said. The placement of the building is located within what is sometimes considered the most active area on campus. Their current building in comparison, is isolated in both location and communication from the majority of campus. The concrete buildings often disrupt communications via radio or phone. Police Services hopes that the new building will help aid, if not completely eliminate these issues and increase campus safety.

Together, these two projects will bring much needed improvement to an ever improving campus.