Serving the High Plains
QCS Senior Writer
Mesalands Community College plans to expand with a new animal/equine science and fine arts building and rodeo grounds on land leased from the Greater Tucumcari Economic Development Corporation, college president Thomas Newsomsaid.
The $8 million expansion will be located on 92 acres on the west side of Tucumcari near the Tucumcari Memorial Park Cemetery, he said. Plans call for the expansion to be completed in two phases. The first will be completed in 10 months at a cost between $70,000 and $100,000. The second will cost $8 million and require seven to 10 years to complete, Newsom said.
The Mesalands Community College Foundation, Inc., and the economic development corporation have signed a memorandum of understanding to allow the college to lease the land.
Newsom said that the new construction will double classroom and facility size for the animal science and rodeo students and will double the space for the college’s fine arts programs.
“With this venture we are going to be able to improve the quality of education for rodeo, animal science and fine arts students,” Newsom said. “It is truly a win, win, win situation for Mesalands and the community. It is an exciting partnership that will benefit the students of Mesalands in years to come,” Dr. Thomas W. Newsom, president of Mesalands.
Newsom said the college’s animal and farrier science and rodeo programs are growing and will need the extra space. The Mesalands Foundation, he said, will fund the majority of the construction cost and will be the signing agent and lease holder for the project.
The project’s first phase will include the relocation of a building now sitting at 11th Street and Historic Route 66 Blvd to the new site. The building, constructed by students of the college’s building trades program, will act as a classroom and rodeo club house. The first phase will also include construction of stalls, a round pen, and a rough stock arena for immediate use by the animal science, farrier science and rodeo programs. Newsom said the pens will allow the rodeo students to conduct timed and rough stock practice.
The second stage, Newsom said, will include a multi-purpose facility encompassing an indoor practice arena and classrooms for the animal science, farrier science, fine arts and rodeo programs. The multi-purpose facility will be available for community functions as well, Newsom said.
The Foundation will launch a long term capital campaign within the next year to raise the $8 million for the second phase, Newsom said.
Newsom said a $10,000 donation from the Working Ranch Cowboys Foundation in 2012 gave the college the spark to look into the development of the expansion project.
Originally the donation was to be used for the building of pens behind the current animal and equine science building, Newsom said. That building, however, is next to the 200-foot-tall wind turbine on campus, which makes developing that property difficult.
“We are very pleased that with the support of the WRCF, we are going to be able to move this project forward, in a very short period of time,” Newsom said.
Patrick Vanderpool, Executive Director of the Greater Tucumcari Economic Development Corporation, said the college’s expansion plan “is a project and an audience are a good fit for Eastern New Mexico and for Quay County in particular. At the same time, I also can't think of a better use of that property. The partnership with the College is one that we always treasure and I think this is a great opportunity to further that partnership.”
Newsom said even with the expansion, however, the Quay County Fair Rodeo Arena will still be the site of Mesalands’ intercollegiate rodeo competitions in the fall and the spring.
Newsom said 50 to 60 acres of the property will be dedicated to the multi-purpose facility and the classrooms. He said the remaining acres will be used to grow feed for the college’s stock animals and may host crop studies in conjunction with New Mexico State University’s Agricultural Experiment Station in Tucumcarias well.