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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us June 24, 2005 DeBoer offers land for college Officials with RCC, SOU hope to create an education district By Damian Mann For the Tidings A former Ashland mayor has offered to donate a key property in downtown Medford that is needed for a joint classroom building proposed for Rogue Community College and Southern Oregon University. “We’ve offered to donate that piece to SOU,” said Alan DeBoer, who is also negotiating to sell four other buildings in downtown Medford and three parking lots to RCC. The land, which is a parking lot at the corner of East Eighth Street and Riverside Avenue and is worth about $150,000, would be the final piece on a city block needed to make room for the 93,000-square-foot building, which still needs funding from Salem before it can be built. DeBoer said he wanted to lend his support to the project, which will help define an educational district in downtown Medford. “I think it’s a wonderful opportunity for Southern Oregon to build this facility,” he said. SOU President Elisabeth Zinser applauded DeBoer’s gift, but said the newly estimated $24.6 million project still faces many funding hurdles. While RCC can pay for much of its share through a recent bond measure approved by voters in Jackson County, SOU must rely on its funding from the state. “We’re the ones who have the challenge,” she said. She said RCC, SOU, local legislators and the governor are pushing to get all the funding pieces together, hoping that Salem carves out some money in its budget this year. A joint building would allow RCC and SOU to consolidate their far-flung facilities that serve the Medford area into a more efficient downtown campus. Zinser said about 1,000 of the 5,000 students going to her university are now taking classes in various buildings in Medford. The new structure would be part of a possible educational zone in the downtown that could include a swath of land next to Bear Creek between East 10th and East Eighth streets for expansion. Lynda Warren, RCC’s chief financial officer, said the college wants to buy other buildings from DeBoer using bond money to save about $188,000 a year in lease payments. The buildings are all located within an area surrounded by East Eighth Street, Riverside Avenue, East Ninth Street and South Central Avenue. Another RCC building owned by DeBoer is located behind the new library on Central. Warren, who said it was too early to discuss how much RCC might pay for these properties, also cautioned that it is still too early to say the new joint building would be built on Central between Eighth and Ninth. “It makes the most sense,” she said. “But it’s not a given.” Kurt Olsen, executive director of the Medford Urban Renewal Agency, said his agency is willing to donate properties valued at up to $800,000 as well as $1.2 million toward sidewalks, street lights and other infrastructure. “Our goal is to support the education district in some way,” he said. Olsen said there have been discussions of turning Bartlett Street, which runs through the middle of the proposed campus complex, into a “woonerf,” a Dutch term that means “street for living.” Middleford Alley in the downtown area is similar to this kind of street design, he said. Sen. Alan Bates, D-Ashland, said legislators are trying to work out a deal to get $1.5 million from the state’s general fund and potentially another $1.3 million to $1.5 million grant from the state Department of Economic Development. “These two pieces are not guaranteed,” he said. “We could get them in three to four weeks.” DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Deep Muscle Stimulator Ceramic Piggy Banks FREE Entertainment Guide Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products Backpacks Online Pharmacy Vegas Travel Guide Search Engine Optimization Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations Hammocks Water Filter Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Bonus Casino Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Mailing Lists Click Here Advertisement .:Advertisements:. Site Search: RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams