Voters to decide on Kirkwood bond issue

Voters in Washington County and surrounding counties will decide whether to grant Kirkwood Community College a bond for $46.5 million Tuesday. The money will go toward renovating existing buildings on Kirkwood?s campuses and building new ones at its satellite offices.

If the referendum is passed, the bond will last from 2015 until 2030. It will not raise the taxes of those in Kirkwood?s district. The property taxes would remain 20 cents for every $1,000 of assessed valuation.

Washington County Kirkwood director Tera Pickens said Tuesday?s vote is a renewal of a bond issue that was passed in 2005. The original bond is set to expire in 2015 and was expected to generate $32 million over that 10-year period, which Pickens said is still a good estimate.

?If the bond is passed, we would look to do a couple of different projects,? Pickens said. ?One is renovating Linn Hall at our main campus in Cedar Rapids. We would make the hall more energy efficient.?

The other projects would be to build buildings at three of Kirkwood?s other location.

?We would build a regional center in Washington,? Pickens said. ?Another would be at the Oakdale Campus and a third would be somewhere in the Marion-Hiawatha area.?

Pickens said Kirkwood?s new building in Washington would allow students in the Washington School District to attend college level courses at no charge to the students.

?It would be part of their normal day to go to the regional center and take these courses,? Pickens said. ?They would get high school and college credit for the classes.?

Kirkwood?s taxing jurisdiction spreads across 18 counties which are Benton, Black Hawk, Buchanan, Cedar, Clinton, Delaware, Dubuque, Iowa, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Jones, Keokuk, Linn, Louisa, Poweshiek, Tama and Washington counties. Only those voters who reside within Kirkwood?s jurisdiction are allowed to vote on the bond issue.