TOP STORY > >Base, community break ground on new ed center

By Arlo Taylor
19th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

Base and community leaders took shovels in hand Monday for a ceremony marking the groundbreaking of the base’s Joint Education Center being built at the corner of Vandenberg Boulevard and John Harden Drive in Jacksonville.

The $14.8 million project is a joint effort between the base and the city of Jacksonville. The citizens of Jacksonville raised $5 million through a 2003 sales tax to help the Air Force build a Joint Education Center for local citizens and Airmen stationed at the base. It’s not the first time the city has given the Air Force a gift. In 1951, local citizens raised more than $1 million to purchase land to build Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville.

“The Joint Education Center that’s under construction is just another example in a long line of the city’s support for the men and women of Little Rock Air Force Base,” said Col. Greg Otey, 19th Airlift Wing commander. “It’s not every day that you find a city that will tax themselves $5 million for a project like this. But city leaders and the community knows the importance of education, and their investment in the joint education center is not only an investment in the future of Little Rock Air Force Base, but it’s also an investment in the future of the children and adults who call Jacksonville and the surrounding area home.”

The state-of-the-art 46,500 square-foot facility, which will be located outside the base’s gates for easy access, will contain classrooms and offices for several colleges and universities offering classes in a wide variety of degree programs.
Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Ark., said the city’s donation to the center’s construction has drawn attention from his colleagues in Washington, D.C.

“People in Washington, when we have talked about this subject, are just overwhelmed with gratitude of what the voters and taxpayers of Jacksonville have done on this project, this is unprecedented,” the congressman said.” When this facility is open, I think you will start seeing other communities try to figure out if this something that could work for them. It all started with the leadership of Jacksonville and the voters of Jacksonville who committed to do this.”

The project is slated for completion in November 2010 and classes are expected to start in January 2011.