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Two-for-one celebration at OC
Mar 02, 2013 (Odessa American - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) --
The day finally arrived for Odessa College -- the day the campus celebrated its first grand opening of one of five brand-new Vision 2015 projects, funded by the $68.5 million bond package passed by voters in 2010.
Under the noon-time sun with the wind howling, a few hundred faculty members, staff, OC athletes and community members packed around the athletic complex of a softball field and tennis courts at the corner of Shakespeare Street and Kermit Highway, as Walter Boring from the Chamber of Commerce and OC President Greg Williams did the celebratory ribbon cutting.
The gates opened and everyone shuffled into the space between the softball field and tennis courts where Williams thanked everyone involved in this project -- from the community for voting it through to the groundskeepers to the architects to the staff (especially Vice President for Business Affairs Virginia Chisum, he said) and OC board members. JSA Architects and JC Roberts Construction Company took on the $2 million project.
Mayor David Turner, formerly an OC board member, was on the board when the bond was approved in 2010, recalled marveling at the diagrams of what the athletic complex will look like. Construction on it began in May 2012.
"To see it in person now, it's beautiful," he said.
The next matter of business was directed at the softball team, who christened the field at 1 p.m. against Lubbock Christian University JV.
"You see that fence out there, the far one Now you got to make sure those yellow balls go over that fence," Turner said.
Just moments before, the same lineup of people gathered across the parking lot at the site of the groundbreaking for the Fire Technology Training Center.
"We get to do this a lot," Williams said.
"About every 15 minutes or so," he joked.
Dave Parker, the department chair of Emergency Medical Services Professional and Fire Technology, was beaming as he thanked the community and described his excitement for the new fire technology training center, even saying that it will be one of the best facilities in the world. The goal is to open OC classes to an online, global community who can learn via online classes then travel to Odessa for a few weeks for the hands-on training, only to return to their community to serve as firefighters or emergency responders.
"It's just been amazing how people have given to this vision and planning. It's been a blessing," Parker said.
"We're all in this together. It takes all of us to get this done. And we did it during an economic downturn, and made it happen," Williams said.
--Contact Lindsay Weaver on twitter at @OAschools, on Facebook at OA Lindsay Weaver or call 432-333-7781.
___ (c)2013 the Odessa American (Odessa, Texas) Visit the Odessa American
(Odessa, Texas) at www.oaoa.com Distributed by MCT Information Services
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