The Ozarks Technical Community College Board of Trustees approved the purchase of two properties for a future Hollister campus.
The properties, located along Missouri State Highway 165, include the former Crockey's restaurant and an adjacent piece of land.
OTC purchased the 2.39 acre Crockey's property for $848,000 and the adjacent 5.86 acre lot for $1.4 million. The city of Hollister will donate .83 acres of land adjacent to the two purchase properties, bringing the total acreage available for the campus to 9.08, according to an Oct. 5 OTC news release.
OTC director of communications and marketing Joel Doepker said in a phone call that the Hollister campus is expected to be completed by January 2013 but that a start date hasn't yet been determined, as the school is still looking for construction and design firms.
“We value the support and interest of all of the area property owners who have been a part of this process as we have weighed all the options," OTC President Hal Higdon said in the release. "We believe we have selected the best location possible for this project."
In April, the Hollister School District voted to join the OTC taxing district, which allows Hollister residents to pay in-district tuition to attend the college rather than the more expensive rate for students living outside of the district, the release said.
For a student taking 15 credit hours, tuition costs are $1,215 for in-district, $1,680 for out-of-district and $2,385 for out-of-state, according to the
OTC Web site.
Approximately $5 million was budgeted for use in the Hollister campus. In early August, the OTC Board of Trustees approved the use of $10 million in bonds for the project and other OTC projects, according to
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