Fayetteville Observer
Published on Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Fayetteville Technical Community College will be able to draw down the remaining $6.35 million in state bonds for building projects at the school or to buy land.

The school’s board of trustees learned Monday that Cumberland County officials have established a $5 million escrow account needed in local matching funds to get the remaining amount from the state’s Higher Education Bond Referendum of 2000.

The county got a bank loan to set up the escrow account. The matching funds had to be available by June 30 or the bond money would have gone to other community colleges in the state. There is no deadline for when the state money has to be spent, Betty Smith, FTCC’s vice president for financial services, said after the meeting.

To help repay the loan over the next five years, the county can use the $1 million per year appropriation it usually gives to FTCC for building projects, college President Larry Norris said.

FTCC can get $1.25 from the state for each $1 in local matching funds. FTCC was allocated about $38.5 million from the higher education bond sale.

In other business, the trustees honored longtime board member Lura Tally.

Tally, a former state senator, has served on the board since 1979. Her appointment by the Cumberland County Board of Education ends June 30.