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Polk County gives up to $15K for design

COLUMBUS—Isothermal Community College-Polk Campus is planning and expansion and Polk County government is helping to facilitate the process. 

Polk County Commissioners met Monday night and heard from ICC officials, including ICC President Walter Dalton. 

Commissioners also agreed to grant ICC up to $15,000 to go towards the design of the expansion in order to apply for grants. 

Dalton spoke on ICC’s presence in Polk County and its programs for the community. 

ICC-Polk opened in Columbus in 1989. 

“We exist to improve life through learning,” Dalton said. “We believe we can help people improve life through learning.” 

Some of the programs include police, fire and EMT training, nursing, adult high school and massage therapy. 

Dalton said they have a wonderful problem at the Polk campus as all the programs are full. A dental assistant program began this fall. 

The expansion plan includes adding approximately 4,000 square feet to the building, estimated to cost about $1 million. The expansion will include mostly more classroom space. 

Pre-planning funding is usually 8-10 percent of the project, so ICC officials said they are looking at about $25,000 for the design and asked Polk County for $10,000-$15,000 of that. 

Commissioner chair Myron Yoder asked how many square feet the current campus has now. 

ICC officials said the Polk campus in Columbus currently has about 12,000 square feet. 

County manager Marche Pittman said the money would be unbudgeted, so suggested it come from the county’s contingency fund.

Yoder said the impact Isothermal has had on his children has been very good and thanked the board for approving the assistance to help expand the college.