Jefferson College officials have agreed to spend $126,735 on two projects for the Hillsboro campus – a steel canopy to be built outside the Area Technical School and an observatory to be built north of the Viking softball field.
In two 4-0 votes, the Board of Trustees hired Aspire Construction in St. Charles for both projects.
The company was awarded a $103,970 contract to build the canopy at the Area Technical School. It submitted the lowest of three bids for the project.
Jefferson College President Dena McCaffrey said the canopy is needed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s to extend the lab to the lot behind the building,” she said. “It will be a permanent structure that will allow the students and instructors to move portable equipment under the canopy for better spacing to ensure physical distancing among students.”
While the canopy will provide additional space for the Area Technical School during the pandemic, it will be useful for years to come, McCaffrey said.
“It is not enclosed, but it will keep the rain, bad weather off them,” she said. “The plan is to use it year-round.”
The canopy will be 27 feet deep and 38 feet wide, said Dale Richardson, the college’s director of buildings and grounds.
Richardson said that, weather permitting, Aspire Construction is expected to begin the work in the second or third week of January, with completion set for March 30.
The college board awarded a $22,675 contract to Aspire Construction to begin Phase 1 work on the observatory, which will be built on the far north end of the campus.
The company also submitted the lowest of three bids for that project, which will include excavation, power and a concrete slab for the observatory dome.
That work is scheduled to begin in mid- to late-January and be finished by the end of March, McCaffrey said.
She said the pandemic “slightly delayed” the project, which likely would have likely started in the summer of 2020.
The college is partnering with the St. Louis Astronomical Society on the project, and the group will donate the dome for the observatory.
Holcim Cement of Ste. Genevieve will donate the cement for the project, college officials said.
The college and the Astronomical Society have held regular “Star Parties” for students and community members to view the night sky at the observatory site. During the pandemic, the “Star Parties” have been virtual events.
Board members Krystal Hargis and Gary Davis did not participate in the Dec. 3 meeting.