Eagle Ridge rooms still available to students

Eagle Ridge, a $6.2 million building project, is available for tours, and there are still rooms open for students to move into.

The building, landscaping, and pavement are included in that amount. Currently, landscaping and the paving of sidewalks and the parking lot are still in process, but the buildings are complete, according to Dale Grant, vice president of finance.

“The parking lot will not be completely concrete,” Grant said.

Once the sidewalk north of Burkhiser is finished the parking lot will be paved.

A section of the parking lot for the Eagle Ridge buildings will stay dirt and will be located east of Burkhiser off of 12th street, he said.

With the landscaping, swales are being implemented to collect water and used for plants that will be farther from the buildings. Swales are used by farmers and ranchers to collect rain and snow to save on the cost of watering plants. The swales are a “low-tech, cutting edge water conservation,” Lucinda Mays, grounds supervisor, said.

Due to the drought this part of the state goes through, swales save on cost and plants.

“We have drought so often, when we were working on the site we looked for ways to collect water that didn’t require machinery,” Mays said.

Engineers helped move land so the swales could be made around Eagle Ridge, and are also being implemented around the Rangeland building.

The plants used for the landscaping are “well adapted to our climate and soil,” according to Mays, and “came from a nursery in Fort Collins, [Colorado].”

Trees, shrubs, and perennials are being planted closer to the buildings while other trees will be planted farther away and serve as wind and snow breakers.

“I’m so impressed with the plants that have come in,” she said.

A local landscaping company is doing the planting.

“The plants really are well adapted for where we live, and it won’t be long until it fills up,” she said.

Although landscaping and paving is still in progress, rooms are available for students interested to move in.

Rooms are single and cost $2,273 per semester, the same amount as a single in Edna Dormitory.

There are 23 rooms in each of the three buildings with six units per building. Each unit has four rooms except the handicap accessible unit, which has three and is the unit the resident adviser stays in, according to Sherri Simons, housing director.

Issues at the beginning of the semester were with wireless routers and students not being able to connect or stay connected in their rooms, according to Simons.

There are still minor issues IT and Simons are working on.

Heating and cooling units at the start of the semester were also being tweaked since they were new units, but problems have been resolved.

Eagle Ridge is more similar to West Court than the dormitories because there is no designated custodian.

Residents have been informed to clean up after themselves and take their trash directly to the dumpsters to help keep Eagle Ridge clean.

“I really appreciate the patience of students who live there,” Simons said.

Once landscaping is done and plants have filled in the area, picnic tables will be brought in for the areas outside between the buildings, according to Simons.

Each building is equipped with a commons area that has a television, seating, sink and counters, and toaster oven; six units, and laundry rooms in the basement.

Outside balconies attached to the top floor of each building can also be used to store bikes or relax.

There are still 26 rooms available for students to move into and those interested may contact Billie Knifong, housing and resident life manager, to set up a tour. Each building has rooms available.