CC leases facilities downtown

Clarendon College will offer new vocational classes downtown this fall after the Board of Regents accepted a lease agreement for facilities on First Street at its June 18 meeting.

The one-year one-dollar lease is between the college and the Donley County Industrial Foundation represented by Walt Knorpp for the buildings formerly owned by Clarendon Manufacturing & Distributing Company. CC President Bill Auvenshine said under the agreement the buildings will be donated to the college when the lease expires.

Auvenshine said CC plans to begin offering welding, wind energy, and HVAC classes at the new location.
“This will also give us a place to house our buses,” Auvenshine said. “Right now we have to park them on the Bairfield Activity Center parking lot and even do maintenance on them in the parking lot in all kinds of weather.”

The hands-on classes and bus facilities will be in two quonset buildings while the Clarendon Manufacturing office will be renovated for indoor classroom space.
Knorpp said making the facilities available to the college was a good option for all involved.

“I thought it would benefit Clarendon College and the community as a whole,” Knorpp said.

In other college business, the board approved hiring Page & Associates of Amarillo as the construction manager at-risk for the construction of two new vocational buildings at the CC Pampa Center.

Regents considered two requests by the Les Beaux Arts Club regarding an arts festival to be held on the campus this fall. The first request was to permit wine to be served during the festival, but regents denied that request since students would be on campus at the time, Auvenshine said. The club also wanted sponsorship funds for the festival in addition to the $500 already pledged by the college, but the board also denied that request.

The fee structure for CC was changed to eliminate the three-hour minimum requirement for taking classes. Students can now take a single one-hour class for about $100. Previously a one-hour class would have be subject to minimum fees of about $300, the president said.
The board also set July 30 as the date for an all-day budget and policy retreat at the Clarendon Country Club. A public hearing on the budget will be held on August 20.