Photo By, Sean Syester
Construction on three brand new buildings at Las Positas College has begun. The Chabot-Las Positas Community College District, LPC faculty and LPC Student Government held a ceremony on Sept. 17 to celebrate the projects.
Coming to Las Positas are an Agricultural Science: Horticulture building, a Public Safety Complex (PSC)/Advanced Manufacturing and Transportation (AMT) building and an Academic Support and Office building. These much-anticipated facilities will help LPC students of future generations with training, experience and access to academic support.
The funding for these projects is an outcome of Measure A, a $950 million bond for Chabot and Las Positas Colleges. This bond was approved by Alameda County voters in 2016, and it resulted in building funds that help both colleges.
“We’d like to thank our community for voting for our bond measures, in this case, Measure A, that without (it), we would not have had the resources to begin such a journey constructing these facilities,” Ronald P. Gerhard, Chancellor of the Chabot-Las Positas Community College District said at the ceremony.
Gerhard has served as chancellor of the district since early 2020. He previously served as interim chancellor and vice chancellor of business services for the district.
The first building introduced at the ceremony was the Agricultural Science: Horticulture building. It will include a greenhouse, shadehouse, classroom, resource library, covered outdoor learning patio, growing grounds and is a project spanning two acres.
Livermore Pleasanton Interim Fire Chief Joe Testa spoke at the ceremony, filling in for Chief Deputy Aaron Lacey, who was unavailable because he had been deployed to fight the California wildfires.
Testa spoke about his personal experiences attending the old Twin Valley Fire Academy and the relationship LPFD has with Las Positas. He said that they are pleased with what the new complex has to offer for future firefighters and officers.
After Testa spoke, Dyrell Foster, president of Las Positas College since February 2020, redirected the conversation to introduce the PSC/AMT building.
In this building, students will have access to an Emergency Medical Services (EMS) simulation lab, situation room, fire training and burn areas, and fire training apparatus. It will also have an automotive training facility, welding lab, classrooms and lab spaces for training of advanced manufacturing processes and faculty offices.
After Foster provided details about the PSC/AMT building, Amy Mattern, the dean of Arts and Humanities at Las Positas, explained the details of the new Academic Support and Office building.
Gibran Beydoun is a writer for The Express. Follow him @Gibran580MSCM
