Healthcare part of Holmes expansion
RIDGELAND — Additional healthcare programs will be added in a Holmes Community College expansion here, county officials were told this week.
They are in the early planning stages of building a 25,000 square foot building on the school’s campus here to house additional healthcare programs, HCC’s president told the Madison County Board of Supervisors on Monday.
“We have a need to really open up some more healthcare programs here in Madison County,” said Dr. Jim Haffey, president of Holmes Community College. “We hope to build a 25,000 square foot building there on I-55 frontage road on the land that we have. We are in the stages of planning that, talking to a neighbor next door. Actually, we need to expand some parking. That is the big academic plan that we have to expand here in Ridgeland, but we are also looking at doing some other things.”
Haffey told supervisors that Holmes Community College has an excellent soccer program in Madison that lost the national championship last spring in double overtime.
“We have plans to go back and try to win it all for Madison County,” Haffey said. “We are building them a new soccer complex there on the campus and they are just good students to have around.”
Haffey and Ridgeland Campus Vice President Don Burnham, Ph.D., attended the supervisors' Monday meeting to update them on the school’s status.
“We mainly just want to be here to thank you guys and ladies for what you’ve done for Holmes Community College over the past 30 or 40 years and to just be here to answer any questions and to offer up our services if you ever have any research or any programs that you need us to be working on,” Haffey said.
The Holmes Community College Madison County Campus is the largest non-residential community college campus in Mississippi, Haffey said. The college has a current enrollment of 3,294 and 375 full-time employees. Holmes granted more than $632,000 in scholarships to Madison Countians this year.
In addition to traditional academic offerings, Haffey said the school also offers more than 30 career and technical programs districtwide, including massage therapy, culinary arts and welding.
In other matters at Monday’s meeting the Board of Supervisors:
• Voted to have the county administrator work with Canton businesses and the City of Canton to keep the Historic grounds safe from damage during the Christmas Celebration, which is scheduled from Nov. 26 to Dec. 24 in Canton.
• Approved the appointment of Zelma Jordan Little to the Camden Fire Protection District.
• Approved purchasing a License Plate Reading system for the Madison County Sheriff’s Office for approximately $50,000.
• Voted to correct an error in the Road Registry and reflect the board’s intent for Bordeaux Court, French Branch and French Branch Cove to be public roads in the Villages of Lake Caroline.
• Approved a supplemental agreement to Mississippi Engineering Group Inc. contract for $142,213.70 for additional design and Civil Engineering and Infrastructure services associated with the relocation of the 30-inch water line serving Nissan within the Reunion Crossing Parkway (Reunion II) project.
• Approved an amended a task order to provide additional appraisals on an existing parcel and to provide all services associated with an additional parcel being added to the project for $13,900 for Reunion Crossing Parkway (Reunion II) Phase 2.
• Approved spending $19,500 for total landscaping and irrigation for the Tax Assessor’s office.
• Approved a plat amendment to combine lots 7 and 8 in the Gluckstadt Business Park.
• Approved a preliminary plat for a new subdivision, Hunters Cove. The seven lots range in size from 2-3.4 acres.