Warren County Community College seeks county approval for campus expansion

Sunday, January 17, 2010
By SARAH M. WOJCIK
The Express-Times

Warren County Community College officials approached the freeholder board Saturday to appeal for a $7.3 million bond to create a satellite campus in the Phillipsburg area.

College President Will Austin said he is confident the venture will make the crowded community college more self-sufficient.

The college is operating near maximum capacity, with enrollment having increased 90 percent in recent years, Austin said.

Austin and members of the Warren County Community College Board of Trustees assured county officials that taxpayers would not have to foot the bill but could benefit from a potential business incubator project at the campus.

The Warren County freeholders insisted that any agreement come with explicit language ensuring the community college is the entity responsible for the finances associated with an expansion.

WCCC receives about $2.1 million in funding from the county.

Austin said the college has already created a budget that would include the roughly $351,600 it would have pay in debt services to the county should the deal go through.

College officials did not divulge where in the Phillipsburg area they would establish the satellite campus, since the purchase deal has not been finalized.