State includes $4.9 million in funding for Carlton Construction Academy

ATLANTA — House Governmental Affairs Chairman Ed Rynders, R-Leesburg, confirmed Wednesday that $4.9 million has been included in the state’s fiscal year 2018 budget for major renovation work on Albany Technical College’s Carlton Construction Academy.

The House was expected to vote on the full $24 billion budget late Wednesday.

If approved by the Legislature, the budget will be sent to Gov. Nathan Deal for his signature.

Just a month ago, the Albany Tech funding was not in the first draft of the state budget, but Rynders, Sen. Freddie Powell Sims, D-Dawson, and the remainder of the area’s delegation — including Reps. Darrel Ealum, D-Albany; Gerald Greene, R-Cuthbert; and Winfred Dukes, D-Albany — worked to get the money into the spending plan.

Albany Tech President Anthony Parker offered words of appreciation to the local legislators Wednesday.

“We are respectful of the legislative process and will reserve comment for when and if legislation passes,” the ATC president said. “I know our local delegation worked hard to move our request forward. The delegation was supportive and helpful.”

Sims, who was also instrumental in securing funding for Albany State University’s new Fine Arts Building, said the Carlton Construction Academy was sorely needed in the region.

“We need this academy to help us rebuild after the storms (of January),” Sims said. “It is a real need for us, and Gov. (Nathan) Deal, Lt. Governor Casey Cagle, House Appropriations Chair Terry England and Senate Appropriations Chair Jack Hill also saw it. They were major factors in obtaining funding.”

Sims said she thought the leaders also recognized the disparity between north Georgia and Southwest Georgia technical college funding.

“There is a large gap in funding schools in the Technical College System of Georgia,” she said. “That funding is greater in other parts of the state. But right now, I feel good for Southwest Georgia. It’s going to take decades for us to rebuild, and we are going to need a skilled labor force to do it.

“This funding is really regional, and we appreciate it.”

Late last year, Parker asked the local delegation’s help with securing $4.9 million from the state for Phase II work on the academy. Parker pointed out that Albany Tech paid $7 million in non-state money for work on Phase I and that the Phase II request would be just the third state-funded project at ATC in the last 22 years.

The proposed renovations would add an additional 23,225 square feet to the facility and provide much-needed space for the college’s diesel technology classrooms.