As students may have noticed in the last few weeks, the P9 parking lot has been going through many changes. What is going on with all that construction?
The Spokane Transit Authority (STA) board and SFCC’s school board has decided to put in a new bus stop in front of building 7, the Student Athletic Center. This is happening not only for the safety of the students but for convenience as well.
Brandon Rapez-Betty, director of Communications and Customer Service for Spokane Transit, says that it has been in progress since 2016.
Nancy Szofran, acting SFCC president says “The discussion started many, many years ago … as the city and the neighborhood were talking about what is the future of this side of Spokane going to look like.”
The STA stop at SFCC was agreed on by four major players, Rapez-Betty said.
“It was a collaboration between the city of Spokane, the West Hills neighborhood, Spokane Transit and Spokane Falls Community College,” he said.
Everyone was included because it won’t be a stop just for SFCC students.
“Anyone with a valid bus pass will be able to board and get off at the stop,” Rapez-Betty said.
Szofran said, “Our neighboring school, Mukogawa, has students that are heavy bus users”
This new placement will see that the Mukogawa students have less of a commute to SFCC’s campus.
When the STA stop at SFCC was brought up to the staff for the first time, there was some hesitancy because of all the unanswered questions but most were answered and all were resolved.
There was the major issue stemming all of the greens and trees that are going to be removed for this project; however, they will be planting more trees and greenery around the new bus stop.
Another thing the faculty was worried about is parking.
“We are losing some parking spots,” Szofran said. “We have a plan to expand parking and to pave more parking when we get the money to do that.”
The two bus stops that are by the stoplight in front of the Lodge on Fort George Wright Drive will be taken out for safety reasons. The stop light located at that intersection will be relocated.
Finally, after all the planning, meeting and discussing that took over two years, their funding of $3 million was approved, and the groundbreaking took place on May 22.
“We were surprised as the rest of the students when we all showed up on Monday and the parking lot was blocked off.” Emily Rowe, Director of marketing for ASG says, “We were a part of the early communications of the STA station going in front of the gym. But, we were not a part of the final conversation as well as we were not given the time line for the actual construction of the station. We are sad that the semi-annual drive-in on June 7 will be in P14 instead of our usual location in P9.”
This is an exciting thing happening on campus and with the expected finishing date in Fall 2019, students and staff are in for a treat.