County Exec Mike Hein. (Photo by Dan Barton)
An architectural study released last week by County Executive Mike Hein shows a renovation cost of $5.8 million at Sophie Finn, to include $2.7 million for renovation of four classrooms, $704,000 for parking-lot additions and improvements and roadwork. The remainder is earmarked for windows, an elevator, sprinkler system, sidewalks and lighting.
The county executive has coined a less-than-pithy acronym for its initiative at Sophie Finn, dubbed as the Strategic Taxpayer Relief through Innovative Visions in Education (Strive) project. The cornerstone of the grandly named project, according to the county legislature resolution adopting it, is “the creation of a satellite campus of Ulster County Community College (UCCC), to be located in the City of Kingston.”
Grants for the project include $1.5 million from Empire State Development, which is a state agency, and $500,000 from the Dyson Foundation in Millbrook. Under the plan, the college will abandon classroom space at the county-owned Business Resource Center in the Town of Ulster.
The Sophie Finn project may delay plans for the long-awaited dormitory construction program at Stone Ridge, Katt has indicated. “There is nothing with the dorms for the immediate future,” he said. College officials had indicated that construction of dorms was important for the school’s future growth. Dutchess Community College opened new dorms at its Poughkeepsie campus last year.
Meanwhile, the legislature has set a June 11 public hearing for SUNY Ulster’s proposed 2013-14 budget at Vanderlyn Hall at 6:30 p.m. in Stone Ridge. The current budget is about $28.2 million for some 2,200 full-time equivalent students.
The college derives revenue from the state (about 24 percent), the county (22 percent), and student tuition and fees. Under a five-year plan adopted two years ago, the state will increase its share by about $330,000 a year in order to return to the level of a third as required by enabling legislation some 50 years ago. Katt said the county executive has asked the college not to seek an increase in the county’s $6.3 million contribution for next year. Katt said trustees are hoping to avoid a tuition increase.
