History welcomes the future

Although threatening thunder storms forced the celebration indoors, inclement weather could not extinguish high hopes or prospects for higher education during the Nov. 15 groundbreaking ceremony at the Stardust Ballroom Hall in Elgin, for what will be Austin Community College's newest and ninth campus.

Due to impending rain, the groundbreaking was moved a couple of miles away from the 98-acre property where the completed campus will stand in about two years. ACC groundskeepers brought soil from the actual site for the shovel ceremony.

The change in venue posed no visible disruption to the ceremony, which hailed the past and embraced the future in actual and symbolic ways. Board of trustees Chair Barbara Mink read a letter of congratulations from former ACC President and CEO Stephen Kinslow, under whose watch the annexation process occurred. ACC's new President and CEO Richard Rhodes thanked the citizens of Elgin for welcoming ACC into their community.

More than 500 people attended the groundbreaking including many members of the Elgin community. Among them were siblings Curtis Neidig, Roy Neidig, and Laura Vrana of the Neidig family, who sold the land for the new campus to ACC.

According to 78-year-old Roy, the siblings were born and raised on the property.

Expanding on Roy's account and drawing a connection between the past and future, his brother Curtis, 76, said their father Robert Neidig shared his vision of how the land should be used while the two were picking cotton one day.

"When [I was] growing up, Daddy always said he wanted the land to be used for a college

or a hospital," Curtis said. The family still raises cotton, corn and cattle on portions of the land that they retained.

In keeping with Robert's vision, annexation committee Co-Chair David Glass said that he saw the community's need for a technical school where low income residents could get an education and better their lives during his tenure as president of the Elgin Independent School District Education Foundation.

"ACC is the perfect mix of technical training and core college courses," Glass said.

Community support for the project had always been high with the exception of a few nay-sayers who doubted that anyone would agree to build a campus in such a small, remote town, according to Glass.

"Now we can draw people from even further

east, for whom it would be inconvenient to travel to Austin," he said.

One concept that may have garnered the support of Elgin residents was the promise of an economic payoff.

"The economic spark helped voters decide," Glass said. Concerning a potential

boost to the economy, President Rhodes said ACC would use local materials wherever and whenever possible which could include the use of bricks produced in Elgin.

The Elgin community will also benefit from the school's energy efficiency and the use of sustainable materials.

Richard Burnight, principal-in-charge for the project by O'Connell Robertson, the engineering firm designing the campus, said, "This building incorporates many sustainable materials, features and energy efficient systems." Burnight

said the building is designed to achieve a LEED rating certification of Silver.

Energy efficiency was not the only economic benefit that Elgin residents considered. Community members whose children are grown and may

not take classes themselves, would benefit from the businesses that tend to develop around college campuses, according to Elgin community member and secretary of

the Elgin Development Cooperation S.H. McShan.

Board of trustees member Guadalupe Sosa also spoke of the projected, positive economic impact of the new campus. "We are such a great economic engine," Sosa said. "Great things are going to happen in Elgin."