Colusa County campus celebrated

When voters passed a $190 million bond in 2006 to upgrade the Yuba Community College District facilities, it was hard to imagine Colusa County with its own college campus.

That vision, now closer to reality, drew college officials and local leaders last week to a plot of land, soggy from recent storms, to celebrate the ground breaking of the Woodland Community College campus in Williams.

Angela R. Fairchilds, Woodland College president, said the new facility will give the college its first permanent home in the county since the Yuba Community College District closed its extension in Colusa in 2003 due to budget cuts.

Fairchilds said the $3.4 million state-of-the-art facility will provide an excellent opportunity for Colusa County adults to get an education beyond high school.

"If you build it, they will come," Fairchilds said, adding it was a long, bumpy road getting there. "I'm proud to have the honor of bringing it to Williams."

Although the loss of local classrooms strained relations between county officials and the college district for several years, the Colusa County Board of Supervisors attended Tuesday's event to present the district with a $600,000 contribution toward the facility.

Supervisor Kim Vann called the future campus, expected to occupy about 3 to 5 acres on E Street near Husted Road, a facility of hope.

"People said it would never happen, but we did it," Vann said.

Vann said the private sector, landowners, school officials and the government worked together as a "true team" to get it accomplished.

Ben Pearson, Yuba Community College trustee and Woodland Community College alumnus, said without the community's voice, a Colusa County campus might never have happened.

"It belongs to the youth of the county and to anyone looking for higher education," Pearson said.

The campus will host four classrooms, facility offices and vending area, and will offer accounting, agriculture, science, computer science, business, economics, mathematics, and other course work for a two-year degree. The campus will also house the Upward Bound program, which provides fundamental support to low-income students as they prepare for college entrance.

"It opens a gateway of opportunity to our citizens,'" said Williams Mayor Angela Plachek-Fulcher. "The city of Williams is honored."

The Colusa County Office of Education also plans to build on the site, which is located next to the Williams office of the California Highway Patrol.

Construction of the campus will be completed during the summer, with instruction to begin spring semester 2011.

Hilbers Contractors and Engineering of Yuba City is building the facility.

Contact Susan Meeker at 458-2121 or smeeker@tcnpress.com.