Lots of moving taking place at Chadron State

Although work is still underway to finish the basement of Sparks Hall, a number of the administrative offices that have been in the Administration Building since the college opened in 1911 have been relocated to Sparks Hall. The top floor of Sparks now contains the offices of President Dr. Janie Park, Vice President of Academic Affairs Lois Veath; and Vice President of Administration and Finance Dale Grant.

The Chadron State Foundation and Alumni Office will be moving from the Kline Center to the upper level of Sparks Hall in a few weeks.

Several other offices from the Administration Building also have been or soon will be moved to Sparks.

As moves to Sparks are made, the offices of the School of Arts and Sciences and the Department Language and Literature and accompanying faculty offices located on the second and third floors of the Administration Building are being temporarily relocated in the vacated offices on the first floor so remodeling of the top floors can begin.

Only a few classrooms on the east and west ends of the Administration Building will be used during the 2007-08 school year.

The Sparks project, which cost about $2.6 million, was begun in the spring of 2006. The renovation of the Administration Building is being done in two phases, each about a year in scope. After the second and third floors are remodeled during the next year, the first floor and basement will be renovated. The construction contract for the Ad Building is about $3.6 million. Fuller Construction of Chadron is the general contractor for both the Sparks Hall and the Administration Building projects.

College officials note that since administrative offices will no longer be located in the Administration Building, it will have to be given a new name. The block-long structure was built in four phases beginning in 1910 and extending into 1917.

The heating, plumbing and air conditioning in the Administration Building were renovated in 2002-04.

The Sparks Hall and Administration Building improvements and relocations are being accompanied by several changes in Crites Hall. The Admissions Offices that were situated on the first floor of the south wing of Crites Hall have moved to the third floor. Several of the clay tile walls in the vacated area are being removed by Kinvald Construction of Scottsbluff. Local contractors will refurbish the area and it will be occupied by the business offices that service student accounts.

This move, which should be completed by Christmas, will make Crites “a one-stop shop” so students can take care of all their transactions from enrollment through graduation in one building.

Blair Brennan, coordinator of physical facilities at CSC, noted that an array of maintenance projects and several other improvements have been taking place on campus as the college prepares for the 2007-08 school year that will begin Monday, Aug. 20.

One of the larger projects was placing a fire suppression, or sprinkler, system in the Nelson Physical Activity Center. Rapid Fire Protection of Rapid City has the $280,000 contract that is being paid for by the Nebraska Task Force on Building Renewal, commonly known as the 309 Commission.

In addition, the gymnasium floor in the Armstrong Building, complete with a new logo in the center of the court, has been refurbished, the finishing touches are being put on the Art Struempler Plaza near the Math and Science Building and the replanting of trees burned on C Hill during the Spotted Tail Fire last summer has begun.

Brennan said that numerous sidewalks will be replaced in the next 10 days before classes begin around Crites Hall, the front of Edna Work Hall and on the Dean’s Green north of the Administration Building. R&J Enterprises of Alliance holds the $80,000 contract.

This fall, a new rubber roof will be installed on Memorial Hall and the building will be tied into the college’s steam absorption chiller that burns wood chips to cool buildings across campus.

Memorial Hall, like all the other buildings on campus, is already heated by utilizing wood chips.

Brennan added that apparently none of the roofs on college buildings was damaged by the June 23 hailstorm that struck Chadron.