MCC tech center gets $1M boost
Lori Harrison
Madisonville Messenger
Madisonville businessman Brown Badgett Sr. has given $1 million toward the Madisonville Community College building that will bear his name.
The Brown Badgett Sr. Energy and Advanced Technology Center was named in Badgett's honor in November 2004 after another donation -- $1.2 million in an irrevocable insurance policy.
"Brown, as with many other educational and athletic endeavors around Hopkins County, wanted to ensure success of the entire project -- thus this wonderful new gift," said Steve Cox, chairman of MCC's Fulfilling the Promise fundraising campaign.
The building received $14 million in funding from the General Assembly in 2005, but an additional allocation of $4 million was vetoed by Gov. Ernie Fletcher earlier this year.
The 70,000-square-foot technology center will include classrooms, offices, flexible laboratory spaces, training rooms, two rooms for mining simulators, and a student lounge located on the mezzanine level between floors.
It will replace the technology campus on School Avenue.
"With the coal mining industry seeing renewed vigor, and the need for trained miners to meet energy needs, the Advanced Technology Center is vital to the economic interests of Muhlenberg, Hopkins and Webster counties," Badgett said in a news release.
"I am delighted that this facility will also provide training space for applied technology students and work force development that will serve all of our local manufacturers," he said. "Our whole economic community will benefit, and I wanted to make sure we had the necessary infrastructure to be successful."
Badgett has been a longtime MCC supporter, serving as a member of the Madisonville College Foundation and lead gifts chairman of the Partners in Progress campaign in the mid 1990s. His total private commitments to MCC since 1990 exceed $2.5 million. He is one of the all-time lead supporters of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, said MCC Development Director John Peters.
Badgett's previous giving to MCC includes major gifts to the Joe C. Davis Science Building and the Muhlenberg County campus.
The newest donation brings the Fulfilling the Promise campaign pledge total to over $8 million.
Construction of the Brown Badgett Sr. Energy and Advanced Technology Center is expected to start in the spring.
"We are finishing what are called construction documents, basically the drawings and specifications," said architect Charlie Jolly of Myers Jolly Architects of Lexington. "We're completing that this week."
The center will be built on the north side of campus, perpendicular to the Joe C. Davis Science Building. It will face the existing north parking lot, making it visible to visitors entering campus.
The state should seek bids in January.
"It takes about a month for the contractors to look at the drawings and to submit a bid," Jolly said.
Construction may start as early as late February or March, he said.
"The Badgett center will offer a whole new dimension of training and education opportunities for MCC students, and our entire community and region will benefit," Cox said.
