Waubonsee field house to cost more than expected

Building a field house and expanding Erickson Hall at Waubonsee Community College is going to cost almost $1 million more than college officials expected.

And that could delay construction several months, as the college has to resubmit its plan to the Illinois Community College Board for approval.

The project was budgeted at $18.3 million, but now will cost at least $19.2 million, according to Jim Sibley, the college's executive director of marketing and communications. He said construction bids came in higher than expected.

The college had a symbolic groundbreaking ceremony for the project in December.

The college also is again seeking permission from the state board for remodeling of Weigel Hall, because that price has also increased, from an expected $988,000 to almost $1.1 million.

The state board reviews projects to ensure colleges have enough money to complete them. It also reviews projects that are dependent on state funding, but Waubonsee's projects are not.

The field house and Erickson Hall expansion are the last two items in the college's 2020 master plan. Voters agreed in 2002 to let the college borrow $67 million for construction, and to increase taxes for operations and maintenance. Under that plan, a new downtown Aurora campus was built; a Plano campus was added; and the Academic and Professional Center, the Science Building, the Student Center and an operations building were added to the Sugar Grove campus.

Sibley could not provide a timetable for the new construction.