(Ford City, PA) State Sen. Joe Pittman drove to the site this month, as did Butler County Community College President Dr. Nick Neupauer.
The site – today a fenced parcel where heavy equipment this month began to dig, dump and disperse native soil and relocated clay, sand and shale – will become in 2023 the new BC3 @ Armstrong in Ford City, and is expected to drive more traffic and more commerce to the borough’s downtown.
Pittman and Neupauer are among those who have stopped to look through the chain-link fence surrounding a bulldozer, a sheepsfoot roller, a large compactor, small and large excavators and skid loaders outfitted with brooms and buckets.
Site superintendent Kenny Houser Jr. has himself been stopped by pedestrians seeking to discuss the project on the sidewalk outside the fence along 1100 Fourth Ave.
“A lot of people do seem like they are excited about it, to see something happen with this property,” Houser said of a nearly two-acre lot upon once stood Ford City Junior-Senior High School, which opened in 1909, closed in 2015 and was razed in 2018.
“A lot of people in this town went to this high school, and just from the older folks I have spoken with, they were disappointed to see the school go, but now they are happy to see another school get built.”
“It’s going to be a transformative project.”
The project that will result in BC3 @ Armstrong moving from its location in Manor Township “has been highly anticipated by the community,” Pittman said. “And now that earth is being moved and the equipment is on site, the community can see that it’s really going to happen. And that means a lot. It’s going to be a real shot in the arm, not only economically for the Ford City community, but educationally for all of Armstrong County.
“It’s going to be a transformative project.”
BC3 in October 2019 announced intentions to relocate BC3 @ Armstrong to Ford City to accommodate an enrollment increase as high as 426 percent since its opening in Manor Township in 2015. The college held a ceremonial groundbreaking for the facility in September.
A “classic partnership”
The state-of-the-art BC3 @ Armstrong in Ford City will occupy 15,000 square feet, may incorporate the keystone of the former Ford City Junior-Senior High School and introduce noncredit workforce development opportunities in advance of developing associate degree career programs in technical fields, BC3 officials said, and represents the “classic partnership, a public-private partnership,” according to Pittman.
“You have many parties coming together to make it work,” Pittman said. “I just can’t talk enough about those kinds of partnerships. Now we are talking about it in the context of an educational opportunity, which means the reinvestment just keeps going on and on and on.”
Former state Rep. Jeff Pyle and Pittman worked to secure a $1.75 million state grant.
Armstrong County commissioners pledged $250,000 toward construction of the facility.
Snyder Associated Companies, Kittanning, pledged $100,000; BelleFlex Technologies and PulFlex Technologies, Ford City, $70,000; and NexTier Bank, $50,000.
“You want others to have a stake in the game,” Pyle said. “And by putting up those generous donations, you have to think they have a stake in the game. … It’s very exciting to watch the whole thing come together. A lot of people pulled for a long time to get this all put together. And now it’s starting to materialize.”
Pyle represented Pennsylvania’s 60th legislative district and lives less than two blocks from the site.
“I am grateful for his vision and foresight in helping to bring BC3 to Ford City,” Pittman said of Pyle. “He spearheaded these efforts and is ultimately responsible for making this dream a reality.”
U.S. rep lauds BC3
BC3 will be the sole tenant of a one-story facility owned by the Nonprofit Development Corp., Butler, said Brian Opitz, the college’s executive director of operations.
The BC3 @ Armstrong facility in Ford City is “definitely under way” and will include up to six classroom spaces, a natural science laboratory, student meeting space, and staff and faculty offices, Opitz said.
Those rooms, that laboratory and space, and those offices are today sketches in the 60 pages of plans in his construction trailer across from 1100 Fourth Ave., where passersby have knocked on the door to hear about the project, said Houser, of DiMarco Construction, Clairton, the project’s general contractor.
“A lot of people do seem like they’re excited about it,” Houser said.
Among those excited is U.S. Rep. Glenn Thompson, who reviewed plans for BC3 @ Armstrong in Ford City last month while visiting the college’s Armstrong County additional location in Manor Township.
The facility “will provide current and future students additional educational opportunities,” Thompson said of BC3 @ Armstrong in Ford City during a Feb. 7 speech on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. … “It’s the efforts of educational institutions like Butler County Community College that provide high-quality, affordable education in giving our next-generation learners more opportunities to succeed.”
“There’s some symbolism here”
Ford City is within Thompson’s 15th congressional district and within Pittman’s 41st senatorial district. BC3 @ Armstrong is the newest of the five additional locations the college has created to serve underrepresented counties in Pennsylvania with higher education.
Neupauer arrived at the future site of BC3 @ Armstrong in Ford City on a recent Sunday evening and took photographs with his cell phone of “ground,” he said, “that is so important to that area.”
“Dates back generations of families, of immigrants coming over who established their roots in the United States. When I talk to folks, quite often those stories come up. Not only is this an exciting project for a lot of reasons, but the fact that it’s happening where so many people were educated, so many generations of families were educated, there’s some symbolism here, and we are proud to be part of that.”
