Briefly put, it's in peril but not dead yet. Hopes were raised with the prospect of money being available from the proposed state university-community college bonds and from the federal government. The bond legislation failed in this session of the legislature, however, and available federal money turned out to be aimed towards technology rather than bricks and mortar.
Hope springs eternal, however, and the committee continues to meet.
There are no plans to embark on a community fund-raising campaign, however, unless the majority of the money can be found elsewhere. There will probably never be another opportunity to build a facility large enough to serve community needs at so little additional cost. Construction cannot be delayed much longer. The death last month of long-time foreign language instructor Gene Wittman has brought an outpouring of testimonials about his impact, plus many contributions to endow the language immersion scholarship program in his name. I was surprised Monday, for example, to receive an e-mail from Berlin from former BRCC student Tony Navarro, who had just learned of Gene's passing.