ROCKINGHAM — The City Council has major votes on Tuesday’s agenda that could finalize the construction and funding of Richmond Community College’s downtown campus.
The council will consider awarding John M. Campbell Company a contract to build the new RCC campus for $11,364,975, the low bid. Next, council members will take up a budget ordinance required as a final step in authorizing the project.
Funding for the campus comes from a variety of sources. Grants from the Cole Foundation and the Richmond Community Foundation each contributed $4,202,500 to the project. The Leon Levine Foundation contributed $1 million, with another $1 million coming from RCC state bonds. And, an N.C. Department of Commerce grant for $94,340, a Cannon grant for $100,000 and a U.S. Department of Agriculture loan of $2,531,217 made up the total $13,130,557 project price tag.
Demolition of the R.W. Goodman building at West Franklin and South Lee streets is set to begin this month. The campus to be built where once the Goodman store stood will be 44,000 square feet in size. It will be named the Kenneth and Claudia Robinette Building, and will house the Leon Levine School of Business and Information Technology.
Classes at the new building are expected to begin in the fall of 2019.
Also on Tuesday, council members will decide whether pr not to declare the Palisades Park swimming pool at 420 Hood St., across from Falling Creek Park, a public nuisance. Assistant City Manager John Massey wrote in an email to Mayor Steve Morris that since 2015 the city has issued three notices regarding the condition of the swimming pool to owner Rockingham Recreation Foundation, but no action has been taken to improve the conditions.
The city will consider selling the Community One Bank building at 115 S. Lawrence St. to Rockingham resident Kenny Melvin for $53,000, the high bid.
Also, the council members will consider adding to the rezoning request from Par 5 Development to convert 1.35 acres at 100 County Home Road — a portion of the former Covington Rest Home property — from Office-Institutional to Highway-Business.
City staff have recommended that council members extend this request to include more of the old rest home’s property, Dorsett Printing property and the National Guard Armory for a total of 11.2 acres of new Highway-Business area.
The meeting will be held 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.