The Carl Sandburg College Board of Trustees agreed to authorize a $30 million bond issue. The money will pay for improvements to the campus in Galesburg.
“Our primary focus is going to be on building a science and technology – and possibly student services – new building on campus to replace some aging buildings and to update our existing science programs,” College President Seamus Reilly told TSPR, adding the bond issue will not change the district’s tax rate.
“The bond market is pretty good and the college is in a good position from a fiscal point of view. And from a monetary point of view it made some sense, and we have the capacity to be able to do a project of this size.”
Reilly said a public hearing on the bond issue will be held next month, and the bonds could be issued in January.
He said some of aging buildings might be maintained for the short-term but they ultimately could be demolished.
Reilly said the college also wants to make it easier for students to move about the campus – an improvement recommended in Sandburg’s Campus Master Plan.
“The campus is built on a horseshoe shape around a lake and students have to go from one end of the campus to another. This will help to centralize some of that circulation and make services more accessible to students in a more concentrated area,” he said.
A news release from the school said this will be the most impactful project undertaken by Sandburg since the primary construction of the Galesburg campus in the 1970s.
The release also said the last new construction at Sandburg was the addition of Building H in 2006. The building houses the mortuary science program.
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