Construction under way for new Fletcher campus

Local, state and higher education leaders stood in a Schriever field Thursday and turned the first shovel-full of dirt on the future campus for the Houma-based L.E. Fletcher Technical Community College.

After 60 years of expanding its programs and developing a more-inclusive mission in serving the Bayou Region, Fletcher renewed its commitment to the community and took the first step in complementing its expansion with the facilities to sustain it, Chancellor Travis Lavigne said.

“The master plan for this campus is to provide state-of-the-art learning opportunities from today through the next 60 years and beyond,” he said. “This is a great day for the college. The groundbreaking is a culmination of years of work and commitment from so many of you in this room.”

Construction on the $19.1 million project is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2012.

The new campus will be constructed on a 70-acre plot of land off of La. Highway 311 between existing Weatherford and BP facilities. The approximately 89,000-square-foot campus will hold classes in business, arts and sciences, drafting and design and integrated production technologies aimed at training students to work in the oil and gas industry.

“The reason today’s groundbreaking is so important n it’s great that it’s a new building, a new facility n but it’s a new training opportunity for our students,” Gov. Bobby Jindal said after the ceremony. “One of the reasons Louisiana has done better than the rest of the country and the rest of the region with our economy is we continue to invest in workforce training, providing better educational opportunities for our students.”

The governor was credited with providing leadership in front of the bond commission, which helped the Louisiana Community and Technical College System attain a $173.7 million bond package to finance 23 projects for 14 community and technical colleges in the state.

The state Legislature approved during the 2007 session Act 391, a bill that approved the 23 facilities projects.

LCTCS President Joel May thanked the governor for his actions, which May said proved he had a clear understanding about the importance of two-year schools, specifically citing Jindal’s assistance in securing funds from the state bond commission. “It goes beyond leadership when you’re engaged, and that’s what occurred here.”

Former LCTCS Chairman Stevie Smith said the Fletcher campus is the second in a series of five groundbreakings within the next 30 days.

The present-day success for community and technical colleges didn’t come easy. With the U.S. financial market in dire condition while the system was trying to secure bonds, Smith said the lack of bond insurance made the buying and selling of necessary bonds impossible and called it a “story of persistence.”

“That process started in early 2007,” Smith said. “Four years later, because of our persistence, we’re here off the side of the highway in the middle of a cane field breaking ground on a new school for our community.”

Current LCTCS Chairman Vincent St. Blanc also said he was grateful for the cooperation between the government and the state two-year college system, which has fostered an improvement.

“From day one, when [Gov. Jindal] stepped in here, we became a family,” St. Blanc said. “And education begins with family. He has issued things to us that we’ve done. He’s taken this system to a level that Louisiana needs to be. Whatever resources that we get, he knows they’ll be no crying, they’ll be no hollering, there will be no protesting. We are a system that works.”

A representative with BP was on hand to donate a $250,000 check to the Fletcher Foundation. BP became the largest private donor to Fletcher in its history, with more than $1 million donated.

Fletcher will continue to operate out of its main office on St. Charles Street in Houma.

Thompson Construction will build the new campus, and Duplanits Design Group, Volute, Brown and Danos Landdesign and All South Electric round out the locally led team.

Gov. Bobby Jindal speaks at the groundbreaking ceremony for a new L.E. Fletcher Technical Community College campus. ERIC BESSON