Antelope Valley College to Build a New Entrance

Administrators at Antelope Valley College in Lancaster have much to be proud of these days. The region’s only community college celebrated its 60th anniversary this fall, enrollment is up to about 8,600 students, and even that figure is expected to nearly double by the year 2000.

But there is one prominent part of the campus that no one boasts about.

For years, the main entrance of the campus has been a virtually barren dirt lot, a five-acre parcel that has embarrassed college officials and has been regarded as an eyesore by neighbors.

That is about to change, however. The college’s Board of Trustees on Monday night voted 5 to 0 to spend $147,000 on an elaborate make-over of part of the corner, including two concrete slabs bearing the school’s name, a concrete plaza and a tree-lined walkway.

“The majority of citizens of the Antelope Valley will never set foot on our campus. But the picture those people form of the college is what they get when they drive by,” said college President Allan Kurki, who called the expenditure “an outstanding idea.”

“Over the last year, this has been the No. 1 topic people in the community have asked me about,” Board President James Du Pratt Jr. said. “And it’s always been by the throat.”

Pratt said the project symbolizes the future of the college, which he expects to grow to 16,000 students and receive as much as $35 million in improvements in coming years.

The board vote came after a brief debate, during which board member Donald Ross warned that the incised lettering on the concrete blocks would not be readily visible. “Uncolored concrete on uncolored concrete is kind of blah on blah,” he said.

Plans to improve the main entrance to the 125-acre campus, at the northwest corner of 30th Street West and Avenue K, have been under discussion for at least the past four years. The final design was selected after half a dozen or so others were rejected, officials said.

“This is for the future, you know. We’re looking at a sign that will last 50 years. It’s not just a little sign that’s going to come down,” said college Vice President William Fellers. He added that the job could start within two weeks and could be completed before Christmas.

Until recently, about the only thing that distinguished the entrance corner of the campus was a small and aged sign on poles that bore the college’s name and space for notices of campus events. Kurki called it “rinky-dink” and Fellers likened it to a sign befitting a junior high school, not a college.

Sign Removed

That sign was removed in recent weeks to make way for the college’s new “Main Entrance Monument Plaza.” It will include the two concrete slabs set into the ground, each about 30 feet wide and 4 feet tall, bearing the college’s name in foot-high letters. One will face 30th Street West and the other Avenue K.

Between them, Fellers said, will be a concrete plaza, which students can use while waiting for buses, with half a dozen waist-high concrete light stands at the street corner. Behind the plaza, a 350-foot-long sidewalk lined with 24 trees will lead back to the campus.

To date, no one has complained about the cost of the project, even though the $147,000-contract awarded to Samrod Corp. of Lancaster, based on its low bid, exceeded the college’s original $130,000 estimate. “We feel confident this is a good bid for the money,” Fellers said.