College building costs up more than $25 million

Wednesday, June 23, 2004 | 10:49 a.m.

The rising cost of steel and other construction materials is adding more than $25 million to the cost of proposed higher education buildings, forcing system officials to scale some facilities back and postpone building others.

The price jump, about 20 percent of what the University and Community College of Nevada expects to get from the state for construction projects, made the tough job of setting construction priorities even harder, Interim Chancellor Jim Rogers said.

The latest priority list from Rogers shows an increase in cost on at least eight buildings because of the 65-percent hike in steel prices, forcing seven other projects to be scaled back or built in phases to even make the list, according to college officials.

The system's capital priority list already totaled $100 million more than Rogers said the system could expect from the 2005 Legislature when the state Public Works Board informed system officials of the building cost increase earlier this month.

About $13 million of the $25 million increase is for three buildings previously approved and budgeted by the Legislature, which places the Board of Regents in the position of asking the state for more money in order to complete the buildings. All of the prices were set by the Public Works Board, Rogers said.

The state Public Works Board included those cost increases with the furniture and equipment budget needs for those buildings, adding $1.43 million to the cost of the Nevada State College liberal arts building, $6.87 million to the cost of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas science, engineering and technology building, and $5 million to the cost of the University of Nevada, Reno library, college officials said.

The Nevada State College at Henderson is also asking for $9 million more in state money to pay for the construction of the liberal arts building, a request that has met with opposition from state lawmakers. Supporters of the college had agreed during the last Legislature to privately raise $10 million for the building but have garnered only $1 million.

The additional cost of basic construction also means that other needs, including more than $20 million in health and safety code renovations at several state institutions, will go unmet, college officials said.

An entire building on the lower end of the list could have been built for that extra cost, Rogers said, such as the $30 million learning center and classroom space at the CCSN's Charleston campus.

"If we had gotten $130 million from the state, and the price had not gone up, we could have included the community college building," Rogers said.

The rise in steel prices is just one more reason why the state needs to find more funding for higher education construction needs, be it by bonds, more investment funds or other methods, the officials said.

"We have to figure out some way to bring more dollars to the table," UNR President John Lilly said.

"It's (the priority list) probably one of the toughest things the chancellor can recommend," Lilly said. "The chancellor probably expects that there is not a single president of a single institution that is happy with this list, and that's because there's not enough money to go around."

CCSN Interim President Paul Gianini agreed, saying that this year's construction budget crunch would continue to be a recurring issue if the state does not find a better way to fund higher education and state construction needs.

"The problem is not with the list, but the problem is that there is not enough money available for the needs of higher education in this state," Gianini said. "It's compounded by the fact that we don't have money set aside for construction projects."

The Board of Regents is slated to review and approve the 16-item, $214 million list at a special meeting Monday.

The list will be forwarded to the governor's office and the state Legislature. Rogers said he expected only $100 million to $130 million of the top priorities to be funded by the 2005 Legislature, but it is up to state lawmakers to decide what on the list to fund and at what amount.