OTC board OKs $2M in funding for parking lot project

The Ozarks Technical Community College Board of Trustees this week took the next step in a multifaceted process to add more parking at its Springfield campus.

The board voted Dec. 13 to approve funding to the tune of $2.2 million for the project, according to a news release. That includes nearly $1.9 million to pay DeWitt & Associates Inc. for the construction work on land OTC owns.

“We need to make sure our college has ample parking to make it convenient for our students to attend class,” OTC Chancellor Hal Higdon said in the release. “When constructing buildings like the Plaster Manufacturing Center, the college always plans to compensate for the lost parking lots.”

Five vacant houses at Pythian Street and Hampton Avenue are slated for demolition to make way for the 201-spot parking lot, said Mark Miller, OTC's chief media relations officer. The parking lot north of OTC would abut the former Mount Carmel United Methodist Church, a building the college recently purchased for $640,000, he said.

"The church is vacant and will be used for an academic program as yet to be determined," Miller said via email.

Construction on the parking lot is expected to start shortly after the new year, with plans to have it ready by August, he added. The site is located between National and Hampton avenues and near the OTC Early Childhood Center.

The project additionally calls for improvements to the corridor along Hampton Avenue by adding brick fencing to the north and south of the lot, stone retaining walls and flashing beacons at the crosswalk, according to the release.