SWCC projects move forward with bid approval

Construction for various projects at Southwestern Community College will begin soon as a handful of bids were accepted during the college board’s Feb. 10 meeting.

SWCC Vice President of Economic Development Wayne Pantini shared how bids came in for main entrance and sidewalk improvements.

“I’m pleased to report it was very competitive. We had 11 bids that came in, ranging everywhere from $213,290 to $390,537,” Pantini said. “A pretty good range there, and we had the low bid that came from Feldhacker Contracting, which is a local contracting firm, and who has done work for us in the past here.”

Priorities for these improvements include adding a boulevard and turn lanes at the main entrance alongside improvements to seven or eight different sidewalk areas.

Construction is expected to begin following the college’s May graduation, with completion in August.

The college plans to fund some of this project using a grant from the Iowa Department of Transportation received in 2023.

“That can only be used for road improvements; that cannot be used for parking areas, so we have to be real strategic about how we do that,” Pantini said. Some of the funds have already been used when adding the Transportation Training Center to campus last year.

The other project the college accepted bids for is the new Skilled Trades Center, a roughly $6 million project to be placed east of the existing Tech Center II building.

The center will be a 15,040-square-feet facility with space dedicated to a 2,000-square-feet carpentry and trades lab, a 3,800-square-feet electrical technology lab and a 1,342-square-feet emergency management services lab, including space to house the program’s ambulance. Other space will include regular classrooms and a student lounge.

Nine different bid packages totaling $4.379 million were approved. This total is lower than the estimated $4.752 million for this portion of the project.

Pantini said the next step will be a pre-construction meeting to figure out entire project timeline. The college plans to being construction in later March, to be completed by December.

In other SWCC news...

The board approved the early retirement of Ann Coulter, the director of the Learning Resource Center. Coulter has worked at the college for 45 years. Her retirement will be effective June 30, 2026.

SWCC Dean of Student Services Kim Bishop said the college’s spring enrollment is up by nine students and 90 credit hours from last spring.

A volleyball head coaching contract for Alyssa Jeffrey of Council Bluffs has been approved by the board. Jeffrey has experience coaching at both Abraham Lincoln High School and Iowa Western Community College.