Dutchess Community College President Dr. D. David Conklin’s plans to build the first residence hall for DCC students on county land at the intersection of Cottage Road and Creek Road, changed on Feb. 7 in front of a county Legislature committee, a day after being challenged by a swarm of opposition including Town of Poughkeepsie board members, residents and firefighters at a Town Board meeting.
Conklin spoke in front of the Legislature’s Budget, Finance and Personnel Committee last week, hoping they would approve a resolution for a 99-year lease on the 25-acre plot, but public input convinced Conklin to ask the committee to hold the resolution.
The college retained Anderson Strickler, LLC in 2005 to conduct a feasibility study to determine if residence halls were viable. From students’ responses, it was determined that DCC has a potential demand for 886 residence hall beds.
Based on that number, the study suggested there be at least 450 beds in order for the first phase of construction to be economically feasible, said Ann Winfield, director of community relations at DCC.
The projected income for the residence halls would be approximately $2.4 million per year, which would pay for the debt service and cover the operating budget. Additional revenue made by the residence halls would come from summer activities, such as elder hostels, youth sports camps and special academic programs.
The college hopes to begin construction by August of 2008, so they can be near completion by 2009, in time for the Hudson Valley to host the Empire State Games.
“It’s a trend among community colleges to offer housing to students,” said Winfield, who believes students benefit from on-campus community living.
It’s reported by the U.S. News and World Report’s college Web site that 20 percent of all community colleges have residential housing. In New York State, 17 of 30 State University of New York community colleges have housing or approval to build residence halls.
Community fires back
With little time to offer input to DCC, several board members and residents expressed frustration at learning about DCC’s plan from a newspaper article or at the Feb. 6 meeting.
“I happened to hear that Dutchess Community College is going to create dorms. I was going to send a letter to DCC regarding safety issues. I had put that in place prior to going to my Tuesday night firehouse meeting,” said Michael Cifone (R-4th Ward), who’s also involved in the Fairview Fire District. “But I didn’t know construction was going to be voted on Thursday until that Tuesday.”
Officials for the fire district are concerned that they don’t have the resources to handle an emergency call increase once the dorms are built.
“How would you feel if all of a sudden, the next day in the paper you read they were putting a hotel behind your house? You’d like to know,” said Jon J. Baisley (R-1st Ward)
“Until receiving a phone call today a couple of hours prior to the meeting, we have not spoken to DCC nor have we received any other information regarding the dorms,” said Tory G. Gallante, Fairview Fire District chief.
Reports indicate that 73 percent of the total taxable properties within the Fairview Fire District, which equals approximately one-half of the 4.58-square mile district, are tax-exempt, according to the Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development. There are 39 tax-exempt properties located within Fairview Fire District’s region. DCC, Marist College, and Fairview Fire Station are included in the listed sites.
“In January 2008, Fairview responded to 140 incidents,” said Gallante. “Sixty percent were for tax-exempt properties.”
“Traffic up and down Fairview has escalated,” said James Rutherford, a town resident since 1970.
“We are vehemently opposed to the construction of any student housing for Dutchess Community College due to safety and budgetary concerns,” John E. Anspach, chairman of the Fairview Fire District, wrote in a letter.
Fairview, a paid fire company, currently has 16 firefighters, four of which can be on-call at one time.
Mike McCormack of Liscum, McCormack & VanVoorhis, LLP, an architectural firm hired to design the residence hall building, defended the issue of residence hall living, particularly when it comes to safety.
“With regard to the safety of students, they are policed much better in terms of being on campus. A lot of the surrounding homes don’t have sprinkler systems or fire alarms,” he said.
Conklin said that he thought the Town Board would embrace the idea for residence halls, and noted the college is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, hoping for some to consider expansion a step in the right direction.
However, attracting outsiders is another concern.
“My concern is that you’ll draw more people to the dorms from other counties to the residence halls,” said Dominic Seminara (R-2nd Ward), suggesting traffic will undoubtedly increase. Seminara added that he believes there cannot be enough interest from county residents to fill dorm occupancy.
Conklin assured the board that students outside of Dutchess County also attend DCC, noting that Putnam County residents don’t have a community college in their county.
Seminara asked Conklin whether DCC would consider becoming a four-year college based on the desire to house students.
“No; we are chartered by the State of New York as a community college,” he said.