An official beginning

Neal Cardin

The Regional Postsecondary Education Center Phase II building will connect the RPC Phase I building in the distance with the Academic/Technical Building.

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Neal Cardin

Bill Swope, left, John Behen and Jim Collier, part of the group of citizens who helped bring secondary education to the Elizabethtown area in the 1960's, talk with each other and current ECTC President Dr. Thelma White after the groundbreaking ceremony.

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Neal Cardin

Officials and guests of Elizabethtown Community and Technical College perform the ceremonial groundbreaking Tuesday afternoon as the official start of construction on the Regional Postsecondary Education Center Phase II building.

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By KELLY RICHARDSON krichardson@thenewsenterprise.com ELIZABETHTOWN — Elizabethtown Community and Technical College is one step closer to construction of its eighth major building project. A groundbreaking ceremony was held Tuesday for the Phase II building of the Regional Postsecondary Education Center at ECTC’s campus off College Street Road. Thelma White, president and CEO of ECTC, and Michael McCall, president of the Kentucky Community and Technical Colleges System, along with local political figures and other community members, were on hand to celebrate the start of construction on the 80,000-square-foot facility. White told those assembled that the $20 million building will help meet the needs of the next generation of students, including expanding the college’s allied health programs. McCall said 50 percent of allied health professionals in the state were trained in KCTCS. It also will help absorb growth from the Army’s base realignment, White said. Contractors should begin moving equipment to the site, which is between the Academic/Technical Building and the Phase I building of the Regional Postsecondary Education Center, at the beginning of next week, White said. The building is set to be completed late 2009. “They are ready to go, and I told them I’m ready to go,” she said, laughing. Rep. Jimmie Lee, D-Elizabethtown, recognized members of the North Central Education Foundation who helped found the college about 40 years ago, some of whom were present at the groundbreaking. “I can’t imagine how many meetings you all had to have,” he said, to make the college possible. Jim Collier, one of those foundation members, helped shovel some of the soil at the end of the ceremony. Collier said buildings needed to be filled with good students and faculty, to which he attributed ECTC’s success. “As far as I’m concerned, buildings are secondary,” he said. Lee said ECTC and the community leaders need to continue working to improve the college. “As we symbolically turn the dirt, it’s not the end, it’s only the beginning,” he said. Kelly Richardson can be reached at (270) 505-1747.