The Tempest

Issue date: 3/12/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Peter Fournier Construction area around the 1700 building.

Solano Community College's 1700 building remodel that started with small planning stages in 1998 is finally in the construction stage with the first phase of a two-year project underway.

According to athletics dean Robert Myers, the project will start on the east side of the building with the annex and locker rooms, and work it's way around to the west side of the building. The east side will feature new equipment and team rooms. When that is done, work will start with the weight and body conditioning area. Those classes will move into the annex while those rooms are being remodeled.

"It'll definitely improve our space for students, our teaching space," he said. "Right now we have almost 40-year-old facilities that are not even in many cases as good as the high schools…we should have appropriate college level facilities when it's done.

In about a month, outdoor projects will begin which includes a turn-around for buses and vans for opposing teams to drop off players, a small ramada so students can stretch when it's warm, and a jogging trail so students won't have to compete with vehicles on the roads adjacent to the parking lots.

SCC's teams will receive several upgrades as a part of this plan. Women's soccer will have a fence put up along with a scoreboard, the football team will have their practice area upgraded in some capacity, softball will have their batting cages, backstops and dugouts remodeled and baseball will have their field turf switched to Ginseng (artificial turf).

Myers said that the construction could be considered the final two years of over ten years of planning.

Myers also made a point that storage will be expanded with the remodel.

"We're going to have more appropriate spaces to store and issue equipment to faculty and students. We're going to have more appropriate meeting space for faculty and students. Our outdoor spaces will be much safer for not only students but for spectators (as well)."

The project cost about $18 million, but Myers said the school could have done as much as $60 million in upgrades. He said the original plan included a new track among other facilities that would have been built if there had been more cash.

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