Southeast Community College to Add Second Residence Hall, at Milford

BEATRICE – Southeast Community College will be building a second new student residence hall on the Milford Campus of the school.
The SCC Board of Governors Tuesday approved a revenue bond issue for the project and amended an agreement with Sampson Caspers Construction to build the facility, at cost not to exceed about $9.38 million.

The revenue bonds are expected to finance over $8 million of the project. College financial advisor, Scott Keene, of Piper Sandler says the bonds would be bank qualified, helping to lead to a lower interest rate for the college.

"Our current estimate for the rates for the bonds is somewhere between two-point-75 percent and three-percent for a 30-year financing".

Keene says the hope is to market the bonds by late May, providing SCC the proceeds for the project by mid-June.
The college the past year completed the first new residence hall on the Milford Campus, named Prairie Hall. SCC Vice President of Finance, Amy Jorgens says the new hall will be similar to the one just constructed.
"It will be about 154 beds. We will take Cornhusker, hopefully we will demolish that building and so we'll have the two residence halls and Pioneer Hall, in Milford".

During the coronavirus pandemic, SCC President Dr. Paul Illich says the college has seen a revenue loss in its bond reserve fund, while students are not on campus but learning online.
"Somewhere around a $600,000 hit in lost revenue associated with the dorms....so I think we're going to get to one-million, pretty fast".

Southeast Community College expects to receive about $4.2 million in support through the CARES Act, passed by Congress during the pandemic.

Illich said, "At least half of that $4.2 million has to be used for student grants on a case-by-case basis. The money really can be used for a lot of expenses associated with living, it can be used for technology if a student needs better technology so they can study online... it can be used for tuition remission......a lot of different things".

The Southeast Community College Board held their monthly meeting by video or phone conference, on Tuesday.