The last round of bond-funded improvements planned for Cape Fear Community College could be delayed or deserted. Both options were weighed by New Hanover County Commissioners after an hour-long discussion yielded questions about enrollment growth and instructional space at the college during a Jan. 5 meeting.
Enrollment at the college is growing faster than anticipated when the $164 million bond referendum passed in 2008, said Cape Fear Community College President Dr. Ted Spring. While a 2008 master facilities plan projected a 31 percent swell in students by 2014, the student population instead saw a 37 percent increase in that time.
“Employers have jobs right now that can’t be filled. The demand for skilled labor is growing,” Spring said.
The community college worked with local businesses to draft a list of new programs that could be added if the Advanced and Emerging Technologies Center is constructed on the north campus in Castle Hayne, including veterinary technology, nanotechnology, forensics and biotechnology. An 18,000-square-foot veterinary tech building is one of three buildings planned for the $38 million construction project.
Programs already in high demand —including training in home heating and cooling systems, automotive technology, construction management, and heavy equipment and transportation — would also benefit from space created by the new buildings.
Commissioner Woody White, who serves on the college’s board of trustees, cited different enrollment numbers than those provided by Spring, collected from the North Carolina Community College System, that showed a 10 percent increase in full-time student enrollment, but a 10 percent decrease in overall enrollment.
Voters approved adding 450,000 square feet of space to the community college to accommodate growth, White continued, a goal achieved with construction of Union Station and the Humanities and Fine Arts Center.
The county was authorized to spend $164 million to add the space, he said, but is not required to spend the full amount.
“These are critical questions to ask. No one loves the community college more than me, more than us in this room, but you can’t always do everything you want to do in government. We have finite resources,” White said.
Spring disputed White’s numbers, and cited a statistic from the state community college system ranking Cape Fear as the second most efficient in overall classroom use in the state.
Commissioner Skip Watkins commended White for his research and for “fiscally looking after your dollars, our tax dollars.” Watkins wondered how issuance of the remaining community college bonds, plus the recently approved $44 million city transportation bond and $160 million county schools bond, might impact the property tax burden on citizens.
Chairman Jonathan Barfield Jr. said voters accept a tax increase when they approve bonds.
County finance director Lisa Wurtzbacher was asked to investigate the conflicting enrollment numbers before the board makes a decision on issuing the bonds during a Jan. 20 meeting. The remaining $40 million in bonds must be issued by November 2015, but Wurtzbacher confirmed the county could request a three-year extension.
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