ECC seeks community input on $195 million plan

Elgin Community College is using its 60th anniversary to look both backward and forward. The college, while prepping to celebrate the milestone event in January, is also in the process of reviewing and refining its plans for the future.

ECC this week announced the formation of ENCORE (Examining Needs and Creating Opportunities for Regional Excellence,) a process for discussing the college's $195 million plan for improving programs and facilities over the next seven years, part of a $387 million master plan to fully update the college by 2030.

The plan involves purchasing land adjacent to ECC's Elgin campus; expanding and redesigning its library; redesigning parking lots and reconfiguring traffic patterns on campus; renovating its student resource center and adding a new training facility for police, firefighters and emergency management technicians.

Maintenance projects, including installing a sprinkler system and energy efficient windows, which have been deferred in recent years due to a loss in state funding, are also part of the plan.

During the next two months, there will be several opportunities to offer feedback on the plans.

College representatives are in the process of meeting with municipal leaders in the area, Communications Director Sarah Evans said.

An open house focusing on the improvement plans will be held from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday in the college's Student Resource Center community room, 1700 Spartan Drive, Elgin.

Students and taxpayers also have the ability to view and comment on the plans online, at eccencore.com

Leading the community feedback effort is a team of 14 community members and five ECC administrators, led by Home State Bank Vice President John Jilek of Sleepy Hollow and former St. Charles mayor Fred Norris.

Evans said college leaders for now are unsure of how they would pay for the proposed plans, or if they plan to call for a referendum.

Based on feedback, the ENCORE team will make recommendations to the college's board of trustees at their Jan. 27 meeting.