Archive for Prescott Valley Campus – Page 2

RIBBON CUTTING CEREMONY TUESDAY OCTOBER 24 CELEBRATING $4 MILLION PLUS RENOVATION/NEW CONSTRUCTION AT ALLIED HEALTH CENTER IN PRESCOTT VALLEY

 

Ceremony at 11:00 a.m. at   Prescott Valley Center, 6955 Panther Path Prescott Valley, AZ 86314; five new Allied Health programs added to curriculum and partnership solidified with Mountain Institute JTED to use facility

There will be a ribbon cutting ceremony that celebrates the opening of  the newly renovated  Yavapai Community College Prescott Valley Allied Health Center. The event will occur at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, October 24.  The Center is located at 6955 Panther Path Prescott Valley, Arizona  86314. The ceremony is open to the public and will be followed by tours.  

The Community College has spent over $4 million in new construction and renovation on this project, most of which came from property taxes paid by all taxpayers in Yavapai County.  It has also partnered  with the West County Mountain Institute JTED to offer high school students courses at the Center.  The believes that this will jump-start in their health careers.  The Mountain Institute did not provide funding for the facilities or the equipment that was placed in those facilities.

The Community College also added five new allied health credits programs at the Center this year.  They are Phlebotomy, Nursing Assistant, Pharmacy Technician, Medical Assistant and Health Information Technology. 

Community College and JTED students from the Mountain Institute will be using new fully-equipped medical assistant exam rooms, phlebotomy blood draw lab, hospital rooms and classrooms.

The College also offers non-credit Allied Health offerings are Caregiver and Certified Nursing Assistant Bridge to Caregiver Training.

The following are three of the many photos supplied the District Governing Board  in its September agenda. These photos show only a small part of the renovation at the Prescott Valley Center. You may view all the photos contained in the Governing Board agenda by clicking here.

PRESCOTT VALLEY CONSTRUCTION MOVING AHEAD ON SCHEDULE

Allied Health JTED Health Occupation Program facilities going up

The Allied Health JTED Health Occupation program facilities at the Prescott Valley Center are going up.  As photos posted in the District Governing Board Agenda show, two of which are below, the construction crews are already working on the second floor of the new structure.

The goal of the construction and design team is to ensure that classroom and lab spaces are ready for students at the start of the fall 2017 semester.

The construction program dates for completion as outlined by the College is as follows:

  1. Prescott Valley Center Parking Expansion – December 2016 through June 2017

  2. Prescott Valley Center Addition – January 2017 through July/August 2017

  3. Prescott Valley Center Addition Floor 2 Completion – December 2017

  4. Building 2 Interior Remodel – May through August 2017

  5. Prescott Valley Center Existing Space Remodel – May through August 2017

  6. Move JTED from Centre Pointe to Prescott Valley – July/August 2017

  7. Move Allied Health to Prescott Valley Center – July/August 2017

 

PRESCOTT VALLEY, YAVAPAI COLLEGE AND NAU END JOINT LANDLORD/TENANT EXPERIMENT

TOWN TO RETURN $3.75 MILLION PLUS AN ESTIMATED $600,000 IN INTEREST

Ten years ago Yavapai Community College loaned the town of Prescott Valley $3.75 million. The loan was intended to help finance construction of a town library and space for a college facility. The idea behind the loan appears to have been to entice Northern Arizona University to create an experimental three-year program  located in Prescott Valley. NAU wasn’t prepared to invest in the project. The Community College would be the landlord of the educational facilities portion of the library—about 12,000 square feet plus a 120 car parking area adjacent the library. (The library consisted of a total of about 55,000 square feet.)

The construction project proceeded and by September 2008 Yavapai Community College said it was offering to lease the Community College facility to NAU. (The property is often referred to as a “condominium.”) NAU leased the facility and classes began in 2010. Documents suggest that Yavapai College would offer lower division programs and curricula leading to associate degrees (and when appropriate, selected certification programs); and Northern Arizona University would provide upper division and graduate programs and curricula leading to baccalaureate and graduate degrees.”  

As a part of the initial agreement, if the relationship fell through at some point in the future the College could demand that the town of Prescott Valley return the $3.75 million plus interest. By 2016 the experiment in terms of joint sharing teaching responsibilities appears to have collapsed. The College administrators decided to end the relationship and ask for their money back. However, negotiations for return of the money did not receive formal Governing Board approval until the May 9, 2017 meeting. 

The College hopes to close the deal with Prescott Valley by June 30, 2017.

Under the agreement executed with the town of Prescott Valley, the College had the option of receiving either the fair market value of the facility or the $3.75 million investment plus interest. Because the market value of the facility was placed at $2 million, the College at the May meeting indicated it would ask return of the original loan of $3.75 million plus interest. The interest is estimated at $600,000.

It should be noted that as a part of the agreement between the University and the Community College there was to be an annual report made to the Governing Board. However, the Blog has not been able find any such report. The Blog also has not been able to identify the amount of money, if any, NAU paid to Yavapai Community College as a part of the lease agreement. Finally, because a portion of the original loan came from the 2000 $69.5 million General Bond issue, the returned money must be used for construction projects.  Dr. Ewell said it could be used for the ongoing Prescott Valley construction or for other projects in the District.

It is anticipated that NAU will construct its own facility or find more space in the not too distant future in Prescott Valley.  Other relationships with the Community College appear to be continuing.

The brief six-minute discussion between Dr. Ewell and the Governing Board about the return of the money can be reviewed in the video below.

College saves $30 million or more by reducing size of Prescott Valley construction project

Reduces building program from 136,000 square feet to 50,000 feet; is the “primary hub” of Allied Health Care

The District Governing Board was told by the College Administrators at the April 18, 2017 Board meeting that it was definitely reducing construction on the Prescott Valley Center from 136,000 square feet to 50,000 feet.  It informed the Board in writing that “The Prescott Valley Center will provide needed space to accommodate the Allied Health programs and Mountain Institute JTED health occupation programs. This investment will extend the useful life of the facility and delay our need to build a new campus. As the youngest and fastest growing community in Yavapai County, YC still believes additional space is needed in PV; however, we have reduced the scope of the expansion to 50,000 ft rather than 136,000 ft as originally envisioned. Prescott Valley is still envisioned as the primary hub of Allied Health programs (except Nursing).”  You may find this statement in the agenda, which can be accessed by clicking here

The original $103.5 million capital development plan is now at $76 million. This is a savings of $27.5 million, all of which resulted from changing construction at the Prescott Valley Center. There was an additional $3 or more million saved but that money was reallocated to the Sedona Center.

 

 

 

BOARD FORMALLY ABANDONS DECEMBER, 2013 MASTER PLAN SAVING $28 MILLION

College presents formal changes to capital development plan to Governing Board at its March 7, 2017 meeting — Verde Valley citizen awareness pays off 

Yavapai College Vice President of Finance and Administrative Services, Dr. Clint Ewell, announced major changes in the $104 million dollar capital development plan adopted by the Governing Board in December, 2013.  Ewell wrote to the “Board that “With the changes made thus far, and the approval of the new recommended changes,  the Capital Master Plan  budget would be reduced to approximately $76M, down from the original $104M estimate.”  This is a saving of $28 million dollars.

The biggest reduction came as a result of a reduction in size of the construction projects on the Prescott Valley Campus.  Verde Valley representatives (Oliphant, Filardo, McCasland) and the Verde Valley Board Advisory Committee had raised questions about the construction in that town for at least three years.  Their watchfulness and a change in presidents at Northern Arizona University may have caused the College to back off its plans for a 136,000 square foot addition.  Here is what Dr. Ewell wrote to the Board at Tuesday’s meeting.

“YC still believes additional space is needed in PV; however, we have reduced the scope of the expansion to 50,000 feet rather than 136,000 feet as originally envisioned. Prescott Valley is still envisioned as the primary hub of allied Health programs (except Nursing). This represents a reduction of roughly $33.1M.”

There are now more than sufficient funds available to construct a career and technical education center (smaller) and a residence hall (pay for itself) on the Verde Campus.

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PRESCOTT VALLEY CENTER MAJOR EXPANSION SCRAPPED

Savings estimated at $38 million; new plan needed; where will savings go?

It has become clear that the plans for a major Yavapai College Prescott Valley Allied health Center, first announced at the December 13, 2013 Governing Board meeting, have been scrapped. The College made this announcement initially at its May, 2016 meeting and reaffirmed the decision at its September, 2016 meeting. There has been no movement to change since September.

Originally, the College intended to build a 136,000 square-foot building at a cost of $52 million at the Prescott Valley Center. That was to house an expanded Allied health program, possibly in a partnership with northern Arizona University. The College says it  will now build a 9,000 square foot addition at a cost of about $5.8 million at the Center and cap the cost of a future university learning Center at $14 million.

It is unclear what caused the College to alter its course. The President suggested it discovered it didn’t need the programs that were intended to occupy the facility. However, a change in the administration at NAU, which appeared to be an early major partner,  may have something to do with the decision.

Under the December, 2013 $103.5 million capital development plan the Sedona Center and Chino Valley Center were both to be closed and sold. Money from the sale of those properties was apparently to be used to help pay toward the $52 million construction costs at the Prescott Valley site. The Sedona Center idea collapsed because of enormous public opposition to the plan and there appears no effort to close down the Chino Valley Center as contemplated in December, 2013.

In addition to selling the two Centers, the College’s December $103.5 million capital renovation and construction plan was apparently to be supported  by regularly increasing the primary property tax rate and student tuition. With the collapse of the Prescott Valley project and the continued development of the two centers, what plan is the college following?

The answer seems to be that there is no revised plan. The College and Governing Board are plowing ahead in the dark.

 

 

 

 

PRESCOTT VALLEY CHARGES COLLEGE $89,341.05 IN FEES FOR NEW CONSTRUCTION

Town remits ONLY $11,043.57; has urged College to build

Wow. The College is investing about $4 million in new construction on the Prescott Valley Center.  The town recently billed the College for $89,341.05 in fees. It remitted $11,043.57, which will help a little. Of interest is the fact that the Prescott Valley Town Council Mayor and others have appeared on several occasions before the Governing Board urging accelerated construction at the Center.  The College actually responded to those requests.  But it didn’t help much with local fees, did it?  

MILLIONS SPENT ON PARKING LOTS

Video shows some of the YC Parking lot reconstruction/resurfacing in last two years on West side of County–your tax money at work

The following three-minute video shows some of the construction of new parking lots and repaved lots carried out by Yavapai College on the West side of the County in the last two years.  

A second video in production will show you actual construction of buildings, etc.  All the while, the headcount, the College reports losing about 6,000 credit students in the last ten years.

NAU opens new facility in Prescott Valley; launches aggressive recruitment effort

Expanding its outreach recruitment and market research; opening information office and visitors center in Prescott Valley

In a newsletter sent to the public and received May 11 by the Blog, NAU stated that it was expanding its outreach and market research in the Yavapai County. It also stated that it was opening an Information Office and Visitors’ Center across from Harkins’ Theatres in Prescott Valley. 

The newsletter added that NAU “values our partnership with Yavapai College.  We are excited about continuing this relationship and look forward to expanding the opportunities in Prescott Valley and Yavapai County.  By working together, we can maximize our relationships to help move Prescott Valley and the State of Arizona forward in this new age of opportunity.”

Recall that a day before this NAU announcement, Wills’ indicated at the District Governing Board meeting she was not sure of the direction NAU was taking.  Umm? 

More of the mystery of the future relationship between Yavapai College and NAU to be uncovered. What is the impact of NAU and Yavapai College competing for the same students?  Why did NAU become more aggressive in Yavapai County in its recruitment efforts? Especially in Prescott Valley?  Have the Prescott Valley politicos sold both NAU and Yavapai County a political bill of goods in re developing economic engines there?  Time will tell.

Below is the news release from NAU.

NAU MAY ANNOUNCEMENT

Wills’ responds to Prescott Valley politicos to get going on Allied Health Campus

College doubles construction investment in one month; move is nice but not necessary; third major campus on West side of County underway

Commentary

Commentary

President Penelope Wills’ is following through on the lobbying pressure from the Prescott Valley (PV) politicians that she get going on developing the Allied Health Campus. As have others in the past, the PV folks have found Wills’ and the Community College an easy target for their lobby.
The following timeline illustrates how effective the local lobbying effort is at the College. As far as one can determine objectively, there is no great necessity for the moves or the construction the College is undertaking. It claims it is meeting all of its Allied Health objectives. The moves are nice but hardly essential to programming. But there is just too much easy money in the budget available to Wills’ and her administration to spend pretty much as they see fit.
1. Original Master Plan. In the College Master Plan, announced December, 2013 the College stated the following: “In addition to maintaining the two existing campuses, the Master Plan recommends a larger, consolidated facility in Prescott Valley to accommodate the new Nursing and Allied Health Center of Excellence. Consolidating the programs from Prescott and Verde Valley, while still offering pre-nursing classes at each campus, will allow the college to leverage the resources allocated to an advanced program. Moving the EMS/EMT program to the new campus will build on the synergies these programs have with the Nursing and Allied Health program further reinforcing the focus of the new campus.” (P. 52, Master Plan.)
The Master Plan also stated that: “The Phase 1 development will focus on the academic core with classrooms, laboratories and simulation labs to serve these focus programs and general education. Office and support space would be required as well as student services, student life, learning center and common space to create a functioning center.”
Phase 1 of the Plan was estimated to cost $30 million. (P. 82, Master Plan.) That was later raised to $45 million and at the May 2016 Governing Board meeting that figure had been raised to $50 million.
In 2015 the College announced it was moving the Prescott Valley Allied Health Campus development into the third phase and extending the time period to 14 years. That will turn out to be a little misleading.
2. January, 2016 an entire PV lobbying group appears at the Governing Board meeting. The lobbying was led by the CEO of the Prescott Valley Chamber of Commerce, who applauded the College for all of its work with Prescott Valley. She was followed by Mike R. Paredes, Executive Director of the Prescott Valley Economic Foundation. He expressed his gratitude and appreciation to the College and its work with his Foundation. Prescott Valley mayor Harvey Skoog poured gallons of political syrup on the Governing Board in a two minute speech. He began by congratulating the Board on the “super job [it] was doing” and declaring that “the best community college in the state is Yavapai College.”
Skoog slipped in a comment about the Allied Health Center stating that he felt like “we’re making good progress in that direction.” (He must know more about the project than the Board or County citizens to be able to make this statement.) In closing he reiterated how much he appreciated the Governing Board’s “good work.”
Skoog was followed by Larry Tarkowski as the cleanup hitter on the local lobby effort. He reminded the Board that the Prescott Valley was the largest community, was growing younger, and was the fastest growing community in Yavapai County.
He also said that the Board should make good use of the ten-year-plan and “move heaven and earth to accelerate” the plan. “We really hope you will move heaven and earth to move forward with your Master Plan that does have an Allied Health element growing here in Prescott Valley,” he said.
3. February, 2016 tentative budget responds to lobby. In the February, 2016 tentative budget (PowerPoint presentation) the Wills’ administration responded to the PV lobby. It included in the budget the renovation and expansion of the PV Center. It decided to keep YC facility adjacent to Bradshaw High School and consolidate the Yavapai College and Mountain Institute Joint Technical Education Allied Health program there.
4. Initial investment. In the February, 2016 tentative budget the College announced it was going to invest $1.5 million in the PV project in 2016-17 and $225,000 in 2017-18 (total $1.725 million).
5. No change in investment. In the April, 2016 draft budget those tentative figures remained.
6. Blindsiding the public. In the final budget rolled out in May, 2016, which was shown on PowerPoint slides with copies not provided to the public either before the meeting as a part of the College agenda or during it, the College doubled its investment in PV. It recommended and received Governing Board approval to spend $2 million in 2016-17 and another 2 million in 2017-18 (total $4 million). No one on the Board asked why the figure had suddenly doubled in one month. I suspect everyone knew why.
7. $14 million on the shelf. The College also announced at the May meeting that it may be putting an additional $14 million into possible future construction but not right now. It appears at this point that the $50 million dollar PV Campus is no longer on the table. But as one can see, the PV lobby is strong and the College is willing to respond to it quickly. Furthermore, mystery surrounds what NAU may do as a part of this scheme.

Hang on to your pocketbooks property taxpayers of Yavapai County.