By Dr. Ross Tomlin, TBCC President
TBCC is moving forward with the layout and design of our new Healthcare Education Building. This building is only possible due to the people of Tillamook County passing our bond measure from the May 2022 election. All of us at the college are very appreciative of the trust you have placed in the college to use this money to expand our healthcare programs and provide some much-needed space for community events. We are very proud to continue serving our county with quality higher education, and this project will allow us to provide even more classes and career training opportunities.
The bond that was passed provided $14.4M for this project. The College also received $8M from the Oregon State Legislature. Due to a very high bond rating and a good market, we received over $1M in additional bond premium funds. This brought the total amount available to design and construct this new Healthcare Education Building to almost $23.5M.
We are getting close to completing the layout and design process which has been very exciting. We have involved faculty, staff, board members, and community members in this process. Our Board of Education will approve the final design soon. Once that is done, I will be going out into the community and sharing the building design and layout along with the timeline for completion.
The community event center on the first floor will be able to be divided into four separate meeting spaces of different sizes. As one big room, it will have a capacity of up to 360 people. The north wall will be all glass looking out onto a courtyard and the current main campus building. The rest of the first floor will contain the lab and lecture space for our new Nursing program along with EMT, Medical Assisting, Phlebotomy, and a radiation certification program that is in partnership with Adventist Health. The second floor will contain administrative offices, classrooms, and the Board of Education meeting room.
We will move the driveway into the campus from its current location off of Marolf Loop Road to the south off Brookfield Ave. This will allow us to locate the new building closer to the current building with a courtyard between them. A big stormwater drainage project funded by FEMA will be completed this summer, which will reduce flooding in the area and the need for a rain garden in between our buildings. We are also working with the city of Tillamook on the wastewater issues that plague the east side of Tillamook.
The new building will be located just south of the existing main campus across the current driveway. Groundbreaking is scheduled for late spring 2024. The building construction would then be completed in time to open the new facility in Fall 2025.
We are all very excited about the design and construction of this new building on the TBCC campus. We will keep the community informed of the progress being made, as well as the date that is set for the groundbreaking ceremony in the spring.