Former Parsons Department Store donated to ACTC

[seicer]

http://www.heralddispatch.com/apps/pbcs.dl...343/1001/NEWS10

"ASHLAND -- Perry and Susan Madden have donated the former Parsons department store building at 1620 Winchester Ave. to the Ashland Community and Technical College Foundation. The building will continue to house the Highlands Museum and Discovery Center, but could house the college's nursing program, if grant funding can be secured.

The five-story, 89,000-square-foot building, valued at $89,000, would need between $10 million and $12 million in renovations before it can house the college's health occupations program. Health occupations includes an LPN program, an associate degree nursing program and new night classes for nursing degrees, said Dr. Greg Adkins, ACTC president."

[seicer]

ACTC to develop virtual Parsons design

Notes --

1. The Ashland Community and Technical College is constructing a virtual design of the former C.H. Parsons building in downtown Ashland. The virtual design will showcase planned $10 million in restorations to the exterior and interior, and will bring curb appeal to the aging downtown building. The structure, at Winchester Avenue and 17th Street, is on tap to become a convention center, offices, pre-employment testing center, an entrepreneur center, and classrooms and laboratories for ACTC's health occupation programs. It will feature also feature a conference center that could host 500. Perry Madden donated the building to ACTC in December 2006.

1a. Work is slated to begin this summer, with "visible improvements" to the facade by the end of 2007. The building was built in 1926.

1b. The $10,000 donation was part of ACTC

[Rural King]

This sounds like a great refab! I cannot think of a better use of a great old structure than putting it to use for these purposes.

I am particularly keen on the ACTC putting LPN and other nursing programs into the building. I cannot think of better and more useful programs that community colleges and tech schools provide at the moment then their nursing programs, esp. in light of the current high demand for new workers to enter the profession. The wages are usually excellent, even in the most rural of areas.

It seems like Ashland has a lot of positive developments going on from what I read on the boards.

[seicer]

^ Morehead State I believe still has their regional campus in the former Ashland Oil Building.

ACTC is facing increasing costs with maintaining their buildings on their College Drive campus near 13th Street. A lot of it was built in the early 1970s and is showing its age, in respect to its air conditioning and heating system, and the building needs major renovations.

Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing more of the college migrate down to the hill to the downtown. It would give use to a lot of underused lots in the central business district, keep students centrally located, and would be healthy for the businesses.