AVC STARTS WORK ON NEW PARKING IN TIME FOR FALL.

Byline: JIM SKEEN Staff Writer

LANCASTER -- Antelope Valley College held a formal groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for the first project to be financed by the $139 million bond measure that local voters approved in 2004.

In a brief ceremony attended by representatives of Lancaster, Palmdale, the Sheriff's Department and the health field, college officials marked the start of a $3.2 million project that will add 915 parking spaces to the north end of the campus.

The project, expected to be completed in time for the fall semester, is expected to relieve chronic parking problems.

``We did a survey of our students and this was the No. 1 priority -- parking,'' said AVC board President Steve Buffalo. ``This will help Cal State Bakersfield (which has a satellite campus on AVC grounds) as well as our main campus.''

Work on the site will also provide a location for a modular building of about 2,160 square feet to house an expansion of the college's nursing program. The expansion will accommodate 41 additional nursing students. The expansion should be ready in time for fall course work.

The work will also provide a site for two modular buildings, each about 2,160 square feet, that will serve as a training academy for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. The academy, estimated to cost about $500,000, is a joint project among the college, the Sheriff's Department, and the cities of Lancaster and Palmdale.

``This is about coalition,'' said Lancaster Mayor Henry Hearns. ``This is an example of us working together.''

The academy will handle from 50 to 75 recruits at a time. The recruits will do their classwork for the 18-week academy as well as their physical training at AVC, said Capt. Susan Kopperud of the Sheriff's Department's training bureau.

Recruits will do their weapons training at the department's Pitchess Ranch facility and their driving training in Pomona, Kopperud said.

The academy is expected to have four training courses a year at the college site, the department's third training academy. The academy is tentatively set to open in October.

The academy is part of an effort by the Sheriff's Department to address a manpower shortage of 1,000 deputies.

The $139 million bond measure will fund projects aimed at updating the Lancaster campus, which has several buildings more than 40 years old, and start the initial development of a Palmdale campus off Barrel Springs Road in southeast Palmdale.

The overhaul is needed, college officials said, to accommodate enrollment expected nearly to double to more than 23,000 students by the year 2015.

AVC officials said preliminary design work is in progress on an $8.9 million complex that will house a new operations and maintenance building, a warehouse and new greenhouses for agriculture courses. The operations and maintenance building is considered a top priority in part because the existing building is located where the college plans to build a $27.7 million health and science building.

The health and science building will be funded with state funds, provided that California voters approve an upcoming statewide bond measure, and a matching contribution from the local bond revenue. The building has a tentative completion date of 2011.

The health and science building will include 44,000 square feet for labs and classrooms to support biological and physical sciences, including a planetarium. An additional 21,000 square feet will be dedicated to the health sciences including nursing, emergency medical services, surgical, cardiovascular and radiologic technology.

Also in line for state funding is a new 400-seat theater. The building could also double as a large lecture hall.

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Photo:

(1 -- 2) Above, a machine grades an area for a parking lot and modular buildings at Antelope Valley College. Below, Antelope Valley College President Jackie Fisher speaks at the groundbreaking ceremony for a parking lot and modular buildings as a grading machine works behind him.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer