Bakersfield College has been undergoing major renovations on campus, according to Bill Rush, interim director of maintenance at BC.
“We will be upgrading the campus not only for safety,” Rush said. “But in the last 40 to 50 years, there has been a tremendous amount of change in technology.”
One of the buildings that is under construction is the Student Services building, which is receiving state funds for a retrofit for earthquakes.
“Since the Student Services building is three stories, it becomes critical for an upgrade,” he said. “The building here has been built in the mid-1950s. The Los Angeles area for many years has had many high-rise buildings where they’ve gone back in and did major retrofitting for earthquakes. They put them on shock absorbers, which is continuously done on older buildings. It is a very intense project.”
Although construction has been delayed due to working around schedules, the Student Services building is expected to be finished in March.
Another project that is near completion is the outdoor swimming pool, which cost nearly $3 million in state funds and private contributions.
“(BC) will be the second college on the West Coast to have a state-of-the-art pool,” Rush said.
The outdoor pool was originally 25 meters long but has now been expanded to 50 meters.
“We’re just about there after four years, and we’re excited about that,” said Jan Stuebbe, BC athletics director. “Fifty years ago, we used to have state championships held here and used to have real strong programs. But we hope three to four years from now to have that back in place.”
Students can sign up for swim lessons with Tina Cumming, the new aquatics director. The pool will be open later this spring.
“This (outdoor pool) is going to be real positive for the east side of Bakersfield, especially since there is a serious lack of pools in Bakersfield,” he said. “So we’re excited with what we can do for the community, let alone what we can do for the students. It’s just a win-win situation.”
Other projects that have been completed at BC are the student bookstore and camera surveillance systems.
BC also is planning to upgrade the high voltage system this summer in phases.