By Harold Reutter
harold.reutter@theindependent.com

The addition on the west side of the CCC main building could open in January 2010.

Glazier said the CCC board originally was to approve general plans for the 50,000-square-foot structure at its January meeting, but delayed action because of questions about the exterior design and the "Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design" (LEED).

Glazier noted that LEED offers four levels of certification: basic, silver, gold and platinum.

Because of up-front cost considerations, Glazier said, CCC wants to go with a basic certification.

That level would mandate things such as 50 percent of construction waste being recycled instead of going to the landfill; when carpet is used up in the new addition, it will be recycled instead of thrown away; and storm water runoff returning to the groundwater instead of going down the storm drain.

Board members had questions about the cost of creating a LEED addition versus the benefits, Glazier said.

The LEED design also would mandate that daylight get into the addition, which requires certain placements of skylights and windows in the structure.

"Board members wanted to make sure that the addition complemented, rather than detracted from, the rest of the building," he said.

Glazier said board members had enough questions that a request for action has been put off until the March board meeting.

He said the addition is needed for two reasons. First, the two-year associate degree nursing program allowed 80 students the first year and another 80 students the second year.

Because of the demand for nurses, the program will expand to 100 students each year, an increase of 20 people each year or a total of 40 students over the two-year course of the program.

That created a demand for more room, Glazier said.

There also was a need to upgrade the lab space, which was originally built when College Park was built, Glazier said.

The new addition will include two biology labs, a science lab and a physical sciences lab.

Three labs are also needed specifically for the nursing program, Glazier said. They include a skills lab, a procedures lab (IVs and other procedures) and a simulator lab.

Glazier said the simulator lab would have three simulator patients. One would be an adult, one would be a pediatric adolescent and there would be a third simulator.

All of the simulators look like patients. Glazier said information can be programmed into each simulator/patient for various illnesses and situations.

The addition also would include an emergency room for teaching students.

Glazier thinks the two-month delay to answer board questions should not put the project behind very much. He said the design should be ready for bidders by June or July, with the board likely to award a bid in August.

Construction should start in the fall.

Glazier noted that the addition makes sense at the Grand Island campus for several reasons. One is that students from the ADN programs in Kearney and Columbus come to centrally located Grand Island for classes that are not available on their own campuses.

Glazier said the program in Grand Island can take advantage of Good Samaritan Hospital in Kearney, Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital in Hastings and St. Francis Medical Center in Grand Island to provide clinical experience for students.

He noted that the addition has been approved by the Nebraska Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education specially for the Grand Island campus.

Glazier put the addition into perspective: The administration addition on the west end of the CCC-Grand Island campus main building covers 23,000 square feet, while the health science education addition will be more than twice as large at 50,000 square feet.