Board votes to extend financing for Ellis Center

The Fort Scott Community College Board of Trustees took action Monday that FSCC President Alysia Johnston said will improve the college's cash flow.

The board voted to structure the refinancing of the Ellis Fine Arts Center at Fort Scott Community College.

The trustees deliberated on a plan that extends the payments from 2022 to 2036 to pay off the $2,950,820 owed. Interest paid will be $40,820.

The plan is to have level yearly payments not to exceed $200,000 as compared to the approximately $400,000 currently paid on the Series 2010 Certificates of Participation (COPS), according to a letter from Ranson Financial Consultants, Wichita, dated Aug. 6, made available to the Tribune.

Financial Advisor John Haas of Ranson Financial presented details for the refinancing to the board Monday evening at the monthly FSCC Board of Trustees meeting in the Heritage Room at the college.

The board signed off on a lease purchase COP with Landmark Bank and Capital One, according Haas.

The trustees were presented with the idea during their August meeting and agreed to look at financing options.

History of fine arts center

The idea for a fine arts center at Fort Scott Community College started in the late 1960s as the college continued to grow, according to a Nov.20, 2008 Tribune report.

"College officials began designing plans for the center following a feasibility study FSCC conducted to determine the preferences of the community for new programs or building projects on campus, according to the report. "FSCC officials and community members also indicated a desire to design a way to honor the late Fort Scott native Gordon Parks, a noted author, photographer, filmmaker, poet and musician who died in 2006."

"The $7.4 million fine arts center is being financed through private donations to the FSCC Endowment Association, the college's non-profit fundraising department, according to the Tribune report.

"The city approved industrial revenue bonds," Carolyn Sinn, former FSCC dean of finances and operations told the Tribune Thursday.

Sinn has assisted with financial operations at FSCC as needed following her retirement in 2005, she said. Most recently she assisted Interim FSCC President Dick Hedges, prior to current Dean of Finances and Operations Julie Eichenberger being hired.

The FSCC Endowment Association collected more than $6 million in pledges and donations through its capital campaign and various fund raisers through the years for the fine arts center, according to the 2008 Tribune report.

"The college made a commitment of $100,000 a year for 15 years," Sinn told the Tribune.

The FSCC Endowment Association planned to pay for the bonds as pledges and donations came in.

"Some of these were estates, some were spread out over five years," Sinn said. "There were also some commitments made upon someone's death. All that has not come in yet. It will in some point in time."

The center is named for local philanthropists Danny and Willa Ellis, who donated $1 million to the center in 2006.

The Kathy Ellis Academic Hall inside the fine arts center was named after the Ellis' late daughter, Kathy, a one-time teacher at FSCC who died in 1997.

The fine arts center contains speech, theater, music and art classrooms along with studios, offices, dressing rooms and community meeting rooms, a performing arts hall and 600-seat auditorium for campus and community theater and music productions, an academic hall, an art gallery and exhibition space, an atrium, and the Gordon Parks Center for Culture and Diversity. FSCC broke ground on the center in October 2007.

"We couldn't have done it without tax credits and the Kresge Foundation," Daryl Roller, former FSCC endowment director said. "A lot of the gifts and tax credits came because of the Parks portion of it. The Kresge Foundation had not been awarding gifts to community colleges, but they said for a small, mid-western, predominantly white community to honor a black artist such as Gordon (Parks) they wanted to be a part of it."