Jefferson College officials have agreed to spend more than $4.4 million to have an addition built and renovations completed at the Arnold campus, 1687 Missouri State Road.
The Jefferson College Board of Trustees voted unanimously April 13 to award a $4,415,000 contract to Aspire Construction Services in St. Charles to build the 5,500-square-foot addition to the Arnold campus building. Aspire submitted the lowest of three bids for the project.
When the addition is complete, the college will move its Law Enforcement Academy and EMT-Paramedic programs from the Imperial campus, 4400 Jeffco Blvd., to the Arnold campus, President Dena McCaffrey said.
“It’s very exciting to be expanding the Arnold campus to accommodate our Law Enforcement and EMT-Paramedic programs,” she said.
McCaffrey said the 46,500-square-foot building on the Arnold campus was built next to high ground, and the addition will be built off the rear of the third floor.
“It will be built on the back,” she said.
Daryl Gehbauer, the college’s vice president of finance and administration, said improvements to the Arnold campus building’s first and second floors will include moving the Testing Center from the third to the first floor; renovating several classrooms; and expanding and relocating the micro market area to make it more customer friendly.
“We will also be adding additional accessible parking near the front entrance of the building,” Gehbauer said.
McCaffrey said Aspire is scheduled to begin renovating the building’s first and second floors after the college’s winter semester ends in May, and construction of the addition will begin in August.
All the work is expected to be completed by the start of the 2024-2025 school year.
“The Arnold campus will be closed after classes end (in May) and will reopen in August,” McCaffrey said. “During the summer, the first and second floors will be renovated (with classes reopening for the fall semester in August).
“Also in August, we will start the third floor addition. In August 2024, the Law Enforcement and EMT-Paramedic programs will be in the third floor.”
Gehbauer said the Arnold campus building opened in 2007 and included 40,000 square feet at that time. However, in 2011, an addition to the second and third floors was built, adding another 6,500 square feet.
He said the building will grow to 52,000 square feet with the new addition.
Gehbauer said the Imperial campus building is old and requires a lot of maintenance, so it would benefit the Law Enforcement and EMT-Paramedic programs to be relocated to the Arnold campus
“The Arnold facility is much newer and requires less upkeep, and is a more aesthetically pleasing building,” he said.
Gehbauer said relocating the Law Enforcement and EMT-Paramedic programs to the Arnold campus could attract more people to enroll in them.
“We are hopeful enrollment will increase due to the exposure of being part of the larger Arnold facility, but this is not our primary reason for relocating the programs,” he said. “We also had an opportunity to take advantage of grant funding to offset the majority of the project costs by doing the expansion of Arnold.”
He said the project will be funded with a variety of sources, including $1,821,264 from state CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act funds; $750,000 from Jefferson County CARES Act funds; $1,443,736 from bond funds; and $400,000 from the college’s fiscal year 2024 Buildings and Grounds roof budget.
McCaffrey said the college probably will try to sell the Imperial campus once the Law Enforcement and EMT-Paramedic programs are moved out of the building.