TRC board votes to buy facility in Kennett

Three Rivers College will move forward with the purchase of a facility it recently renovated in Kennett, Missouri, and architectural drawings of a new event center in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, according to separate 5-1 votes last week by the board of trustees.

Trustees also received an update Wednesday on construction projects. The Sikeston campus is on-target to be complete in October, while the new main entrance and Poplar Bluff classroom building have experienced delays.

The group also agreed on a contract for interim president Wes Payne.

The college will buy the Kennett facility for $750,000. The college occupies a little more than half of the of the 27,000-square-foot building. The remaining space was rented to another tenant until the end of June.

The college hired Dille and Traxel to complete architectural drawings of a 76,000-square-foot event center.

The contract includes $840,000 in costs split between a community storm shelter project and the 3,000-seat main building, according to documents presented at the meeting. A Federal Emergency Management Agency grant will pay 75 percent, or almost $274,600, of the storm shelter drawings.

Also Wednesday, trustees approved a contract for interim president Payne while cutting $673,000 from the budget to compensate for losses in state funding.

Payne was named interim president in May after former president Devin Stephenson abruptly stepped down.

Payne will continue to act as vice president of learning while taking on the duties of president until Nov. 30, according to a contract approved by the board.

Payne will receive an annual salary of $175,000 and a housing allowance of $500 a month.

Trustees will meet with Payne on or before Nov. 1 to conduct an evaluation. Based on that, they will determine whether they will negotiate a permanent contract, extend the interim contract or begin a search for a new president, according to college documents.

Meanwhile, the college learned in May the governor will withhold about $673,000 in state funding from the fiscal year 2015 budget.

Members of the administration met with budget managers after the announcement, Payne said. Operating expenses have been reduced by about $752,000 as a result, with a projected increase in net assets of almost $156,000.

The cuts were made by scrapping plans to hire about four employees and chipping away at budgets collegewide, according to documents presented to trustees. The cuts will not affect the jobs of anyone currently working for the college, Payne said.

"Going into this, I was determined and clearly stated existing personnel were not going to be cut," Payne said.