College Opens New Vocational Center

Compton Community College opened its first new building in more than 20 years Thursday, kicking off what some say will be a long and difficult period of campus expansion for one of the state’s smallest college districts.

The $19-million, 89,000-square-foot Dills Vocational Technology Center is the first of about $55 million in new projects planned for the campus on Artesia Boulevard. Included in the plans are a math/science building, a library, a center for training child-care workers and a new football stadium and track.

The buildup is part of an effort to deal with soaring enrollment, up from 4,559 in 1993 to 7,211 in 1999.

“That campus is being aggressively renewed,” said Fred Harris, finance and facilities director in the state Community College Chancellor’s office in Sacramento.

Though Compton administrators celebrated the new state-funded building at a three-hour opening ceremony Thursday, the experience of completing the vocational center offers plenty of lessons for the coming construction.

The opening came nearly two years late. About $3 million in cost overruns have not been paid. Some subcontractors say they have not been fully paid.

A bill is being introduced in the Assembly to cover the gap. But earlier this year, Gov. Gray Davis vetoed a similar measure, calling additional costs “unsupportable.”

“At times, it’s been a comedy of errors,” college board member Kent Swift conceded this week.

First conceived nine years ago to replace asbestos-contaminated buildings, the vocational center received funding approval in 1995 after then-state Sen. Ralph C. Dills, an El Segundo Democrat and Compton Community College alumnus, provided his vote on the condition the new building be named for him.

Construction, which was supposed to take 18 months, began in July 1997. The builder is a joint venture of Pasadena-based Pacifica Services Inc. and Bakewell Construction Co., a Culver City firm run by Danny Bakewell Jr.

Bakewell, whose company had never attempted so large a building, said rains, design changes and unexpectedly sandy soil slowed work. Builders also struggled to install a massive underground heating-and-cooling system.

“Things like this happen in any project,” Bakewell said.

The two-story, brick-and-glass structure was completed this year. Some classes are already using the center, but it will be fully opened next semester, which starts Jan. 8.

Critics have blamed the board for failing to supervise the project more closely. The state chancellor’s office also has expressed concern about the ability of the administration to manage so many projects simultaneously.

“The new construction is needed, but the problems are mind-boggling,” said James Johnson, an English professor and co-president of the Compton College Federation of Employees.

At Thursday’s opening ceremony, such concerns were dismissed as mere growing pains.

“We’re on our way,” said college President Ulis Williams. “I feel like we can see the end of the rainbow.”

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More Students

Fall enrollment figures at Compton Community College, including full-and part-time students:

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1993: 4,559

1999: 7,211

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Source: state chancellor’s office