The Ozarks Technical Community College Board of Trustees approved an additional $312,948 to expand the planned Agriculture and Electrical Distribution Systems Building at the Richwood Valley campus. The building project will grow by nearly 3,000 square feet, bringing the facility’s total footprint to 19,600 square feet.
The new building will provide additional classroom space for the Agriculture program, which has experienced rapid growth since moving to the Richwood Valley campus in 2019. Plus, the building will furnish a dedicated classroom and training space for the Electrical Distribution Systems (lineworker) program for the first time since the program debuted at Richwood Valley in 2021. Besides a classroom and laboratory space, the new building will also house the program’s equipment and tools.
The Board originally approved the project in October for a total cost of $4.5 million. The college received two grants to fund the new building.
- $1.7 million from the Economic Development Administration of the U.S. Commerce Department.
- $2.5 million from the State MoExcels Workforce Initiative. This grant requires a 50/50 match from OTC.
Since bids for the project were less than construction estimates, and to utilize the MoExcels funding, the college was able to increase the size of the building by 2,960 square feet. The new total project cost is $4,842,492.44.
The college is also evaluating equipment needs for the two programs to utilize the MoExcels funding completely. OTC’s capital contribution to the project will only be 14.5% of the total project cost after the full utilization of both grants.
The college broke ground for the new building on January 2, 2024. OTC plans to have the facility available for classes by January 2025.