Oakland Comm College wraps up renovation projects

Metromode, 7/29/2010

Oakland Community College has seen a flurry of improvement projects alongside its summer classes, ranging from parking lot paving to new doors.

Nearly $2 million in improvements began earlier this year at several campuses. At the Orchard Ridge campus, it was discovered that the emergency structural investigations were not as serious a concern as previously thought. Replacement of the emergency generator, distribution panels, and lighting in Building J is being finished up with an end date of approximately late August.

Improvements at the Highland Lake campus, including parking lot repaving and the addition of lighting and handicap accessibility to the Campus Pavilion, will wrap up in September on schedule and a bit under budget, "which is always good news," says George Cartsonis, OCC's director of college communications.

Taking a little more time than planned is the replacement of 152 campus doors, as the bidding process just closed. Cartsonis said it'll likely be several months before that project is completed, by January at the latest. New doors might not seem a high priority, but with students swinging them open and shut for decades, "they do get worn," he says.

Cartsonis said the 76,000 students, attending classes all day nearly every day, make for a lot of wear and tear on the five campus locations. "It's one of our top priorities, to have as safe and attractive an environment as we possibly can," he says. "We get a great deal of traffic through the year. It needs constant tending to."

Earlier this summer, OCC announced it would also begin work on repairing and replacing some of the roads at the Auburn Hills and Orchard Ridge campuses, and installing stair and aisle handrails at the Orchard Ridge campus' Smith Theatre, amounting to another $2.5 million in improvements. However, the board of directors is holding off on making any other improvement plans until after the Aug. 3 millage renewal vote.

Source: George Cartsonis, director of college communications, Oakland Community College
Writer: Kristin Lukowski