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SCOOBA, Miss. (AP) — Retiring East Mississippi Community College President Dr. Rick Young will spend his final six weeks at the school by campaigning for a new men's dorm and a new athletic operations center to be built for the main campus in Scooba.
The Meridian Star reports http://bit.ly/1F87F0e ) Young, Vice President Dr. Paul Miller, head football coach Buddy Stephens and Institutional Advancement and Alumni Affairs Director Nick Clark met with the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors last week to present a plan to replace two men's dorms built in the 1940s and to build a new, centralized athletic center for the Lions' sports teams.
"We have two dorms that were built in the mid-1940s, Noxubee Hall and Lauderdale Hall, and we only have two years of life left in these dorms," Young said during a supervisors meeting last week. "Some new dorms are sorely needed. We also need a new sports operations facility. We're hoping the supervisors support us because we have to replaces these dorms."
Miller said EMCC will start a 25-year, $70 million plan that will boost the housing and student life on the Scooba campus.
"The dorm needs have become critical," Miller said. "We have a set deadline of no more than five years and then we have to tear down the old dorms. We're looking to scale this project in phases. Our first new dorm will be at 160 beds and that would replace the two buildings and its combined 140 beds, so we would have a net gain of beds."
Clark told the supervisors it will cost $7 million to build the new dorm and $5 million to build the athletic operations center. He said EMCC can raise $7.7 million through its bonds, student fees and other sources. He asked the supervisors for $3.46 million that would be allocated over a 20-year period or roughly $180,000 a year.
Supervisor Wayman Newell liked the plan and said the supervisors will discuss it during a work session for the upcoming 2016 budget year.
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Information from: The Meridian Star, http://www.meridianstar.com
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