Remodeling or replacing the DeWitt Student Center and the Nelson Performing Arts Center are two of the highest priorities identified in Northwest College’s facilities master plan, updated last year.

They also were listed high on previous master plans.

But more information is needed before progress can begin toward either facility, NWC President Stefani Hicswa told the NWC Board of Trustees on Monday.

Questions that need to be answered include whether it would be better to remodel and expand either facility, or start over with new construction. What might each option look like? What would be the cost and the practicality for either alternative for each building?

Until those answers are available, it isn’t possible to put a performing and visual arts building project on the list of community colleges up for consideration for state funding, and it’s difficult to do fundraising for either project, Hicswa said.

To get that information, Hicswa asked the board to approve funding for a separate level-one study for each building. The plans are estimated to cost between $50,000 and $100,000 each.

“We’re not going to be able to get any (state) money for Nelson for at least four years” because of the length of the list of proposed projects for other colleges, she said.

“We are behind, in some respects, on getting these projects in the queue.”

“But we have to have a plan before we can get in the queue,” said Trustee Nada Larsen of Meeteetse.

Hicswa said she and Lisa Watson, NWC vice president for administrative services, were aware of the May deadline to get a project up for consideration this year by the Wyoming Community College Commission.

“We looked at it, and we didn’t have the planning together,” she said. “We need to start to get moving forward.”

The commission compiles a prioritized list of capital construction projects every two years and forwards it to the Wyoming Legislature prior to the Legislature’s biennial budget session. The next budget session begins in February.

Hicswa said many colleges go through the level-one planning process, and if the Legislature doesn’t approve their project, they do fundraising and try again two years later. “Then they are one of the top projects on the (commission’s) list,” she said.

Board President John Housel asked what the useful period of time would be before the plans would become obsolete.

Watson said the plans should remain viable for at least two or three years — generally long enough to place the project on the commission’s list, then advance to a level-two study.

Hicswa said it is important to pick a plan and stick with it.

“We need to start somewhere and move; otherwise, the DeWitt Student Center is going to look just like it does now, 15 years from now.”

The board voted unanimously to move forward with both plans at a cost not to exceed $100,000 each.

Trustee Dusty Spomer said his business, GDA Engineers, will not submit a proposal, so his positive vote did not represent a conflict of interest.