By Aila Boyd
aboyd@mainstreetnewspapers.com
The Botetourt County Board of Supervisors approved the issuance of a request for proposals (RFP) for the planning and design services for a Greenfield Education and Training Center addition for Virginia Western Community College (VWCC).
During the meeting, it was noted that the Greenfield Education and Training Center was opened 20 years ago as a satellite location for VWCC to provide workforce training programming in Botetourt County. Given the county’s occupancy of the building as a consolidated administration center, the college’s original lease has been extended to allow for the planning and design of a building addition to provide for the college’s future long-term facility needs.
The Botetourt County Economic Development Authority, the owner of the building, has agreed to finance the design and construction of the building addition. The county will administer the design and construction.
Planning and design of the addition will be conducted in partnership with VWCC and the county. Representatives from the college will participate in the selection of design professionals and be engaged throughout the design process.
Once proposals are received, an evaluation team will review the proposals, interview select firms and present a recommended proposal ranking for the Board of Supervisors at the September meeting.
Earlier in the meeting, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the county and the Economic Development Authority was approved related to the building. It is a short-term agreement that will be replaced by long-term leases negotiated between the authority, VWCC and between the authority and the county sometime next year.
The MOU provides for the transfer of all lease payments received by the authority from VWCC to the county ($345,000 annually) to offset some of the county’s costs and investments. Previously, the lease payments went towards retiring the county’s debt on the building, which has been completed.
The MOU was approved by the authority during its July 10 meeting.
