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Construction crew poised for Rangeland Center prep

T.J. Thomson
Lucinda Mays, left, CSC's horticulturist, and a man ride past a 48.6-foot Caterpillar 637D Motor Scraper Monday afternoon. The scraper was one of two earth-moving machines transported to campus over the weekend to begin groundwork on the Rangeland Center's construction site. – Photo by T.J. Thomson
Lucinda Mays, left, CSC’s horticulturist, and a man ride past a 48.6-foot Caterpillar 637D Motor Scraper Monday afternoon. The scraper was one of two earth-moving machines transported to campus over the weekend to begin groundwork on the Rangeland Center’s construction site. – Photo by T.J. Thomson

A small fleet of earth-moving equipment arrived over the weekend at CSC to prep the ground for phase one of the Rangeland Center’s construction.

Sampson Construction, general contractor for the project, called in Scottsbluff-based Sunshine Holdings LLC to peform the site’s dirt work, Dale Grant, vice president for administration and finance, said Tuesday.

Phase I includes construction of a $3.3 million dollar arena and extension of utilities and roadway to the site.

The utility extension will occur after the site’s ground work is completed, due to a subcontractor request, Grant said.

“The group that is doing that [the utility extension] wants the dirt work done first,” Grant said.

CSC administrators predict the arena’s steel frame to be on site before the end of November, and estimate project completion by October 2013, he said.

Chuck Butterfield, professor and applied sciences department chair, said Tuesday that future rodeos wouldn’t be housed in the indoor arena, but that the space would allow the rodeo team’s members the ability to practice in the winter.

Butterfield said that CSC wouldn’t have the opportunity to host a rodeo at the college until phase three or four.

“Until we get to phase three or four, the primary use of that [the arena] would be classes such as our livestock production course,” Butterfield said. “Eventually, we’re supposed to have an outdoor arena.”

The campus master plan calls for a greenhouse component to be housed adjacent the new Rangeland Center, although it won’t be constructed until after 2014, Grant said.

“We have got to get the lab building built first before we consider those,” Grant said.

Once completed, Butterfield said the building would house a three-bay greenhouse. The first bay would be for teaching collections, such as the college’s plant ID and grass systematics courses.

“It would allow students to interact with live plants rather than viewing them pasted to a piece of paper,” Butterfield said.

The second component would house the greenhouse’s research bay, which would allow for a bug-free, controlled environment for plant experiments.

The third bay would be dedicated to horticulture and would allow increased opportunities for beautifying campus, Butterfield said.

“My goal is to make these improvements part of the regional community,” Butterfield said.