By Ryan Lewis
Correspondent
KIMBALL, Tenn. – Problems have begun to plague the new technical training center that Marion County administrators are trying to build in Kimball.
Recently, county officials ran into problems in hiring a construction manager for the project. Now Kimball Mayor David Jackson says a major stumbling block has come up when the planned 30,000-square-foot building came in well over the $2.1 million budget.
“The first price they received from the engineers is that this building would cost $3.6 million,” he said. “They looked at reducing the size of the building down to 15,000 square feet, and Chattanooga State (which will operate the center) said ‘no.'”
Kimball is in the midst of a $750,000 project to provide sewage services to the school, and local board members wondered if they should continue the work with a cloud of doubt surrounding the new facility.
Beth Jones, executive director of the Southeast Tennessee Development District, which covers 12 counties in Tennessee and North Georgia, believes the new school should be able to get the additional funding it needs for a suitable structure and that Kimball should continue the sewer work.
“I don’t think you get everything you need in the technical community college if you back off the footprint,” she said. “That is not a new building to just replace current programming that’s going on, even though we’re busting at the seams (where the facility is now). It is to augment programming and add additional classes so people can earn a two-year degree without driving so far.”
Jones said Kimball could go back and apply for additional grant money to help with the sewer project, if necessary.
“We have some other funding options,” she said. “To restrict that footprint doesn’t make sense. It needs to be done, and it needs to be done right.”
The board voted unanimously to continue the sewer work.
“If we move forward and this school was to go away, this $750,000 would still be included in the low-interest money and grant money that we’re talking about,” Alderman Mark Payne said. “I think we need to keep inching along at least.”
“Everybody on this board supports this project 100 percent,” Jackson said. “I don’t think this board would’ve committed three quarters of a million dollars if we didn’t support it. It would be a benefit to Kimball and the whole county.”
Ryan Lewis is based in Marion County. Contact him at ryanlewis34@gmail.com.