LCCC Approves $15 Million Bond Issue: College to Pay Off Building Lease, Relocate Library, Complete Other Renovations.

By Genevieve Marshall, The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.

Jan. 5–Lehigh Carbon Community College plans to borrow $15 million to buy out a 20-year lease and move the library into Carbon Lehigh Intermediate Unit 21′s former administration building.

College trustees agreed Thursday to pay $6.5 million — the sale purchase option in a lease agreement with IU 21 — for the agency’s administration building at 4750 Orchard Road in Schnecksville.

Trustees also raised tuition 2.6 percent for full- and part-time students, except Schuylkill County residents, who will pay 53 percent more per credit hour to attend part time. They also decided to eliminate some fees.

To complete the lease and renovate the building, as well as make other improvements on the campus, community college officials said they need a $15 million bond issue.

IU 21, one of 29 intermediate units in Pennsylvania that provide regional education services in curriculum, instruction and management services to school districts, built its administration building on the college’s Schnecksville campus in 1988, LCCC President Don Snyder said.

The intermediate unit began leasing its administration building back to the college in December 2003 for $694,000 a year. In October 2006, IU 21 relocated its business offices to a new building on the eastern side of Route 309.

More than a third of the $15 million bond issue that trustees unanimously approved will go toward buying out the 20-year lease. The lease had set the purchase price of the building at $1 at the lease’s end, said Larry Ross, vice president-controller.

The college’s bond issue also will cover $4.5 million in renovations to convert the administration building to a library, $3 million to replace the main campus mall walkways, and the renovation of the college’s Education Center, Allied Health Center and administration buildings.

The existing library in the Learning Resources Center will be renovated into classrooms and space for student services, Snyder said.

Buying out the lease allows the college to continue taking advantage of 50 percent reimbursement from the state for debt service, Ross said. The college will save $450,000 by transferring the lease into debt because the interest rate on the bond issue is expected to be 4 percent compared to the 5.1 percent interest rate on the lease, he said.

Snyder said the intermediate unit needed the cash from the college to fund its own debt service.

IU 21′s board approved the sale price in November. The agency’s administration offices have completely relocated to 4210 Independence Drive.

Also on Thursday, college trustees approved tuition rates and fees for the 2007-08 academic year.

Schuylkill residents will pay more than part-time students from sponsoring districts, who are currently charged the same $78 per credit hour. Students from sponsoring districts will pay $80 per credit hour next year compared to $120 for Schuylkill students.

Part-time tuition is double for other Pennsylvania residents and triple for out-of-state and foreign students.

Tuition for full-time students from Schuylkill, as well as part-time and full-time students from everywhere else, will increase only 2.6 percent. Full-time Schuylkill students will pay $30 more per semester next year, or $1,800 before fees.

Tuition for full-time students from sponsoring school districts will increase the same amount to $1,200.

Student activity and technology fees remain the same for everyone.

The college also decided to drop its $25 distance learning fee, a vestige of an era when students had to copy videotapes of TV programs, Snyder said.

“It was an outdated fee, so we eliminated it,” he said.

LCCC will also offer to waive its $30 application fee for high school seniors. The fee already is waived for prospective students who apply online.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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