Safe room planned for child lab school

The Child Development Center and Lab School could be the new home for an underground safe room in the future. The room is planned to shelter up to 48 students, 15 employees and six lab students in the event of a tornado warning. The safe room is set to be installed on the south side of the building, near the playground. Photo by Jay Rocamontes

By Matt Caban, Staff Writer

The Child Development Center and Lab School will receive a $100,000 tornado safe room during the 2008 fiscal year, which began July 1. The room measures nearly 29 feet wide and 17 feet deep.

CDCLS Director Mary McCoy said the addition of a permanent safe room will be better for everyone’s safety.

“It’d be safer than being in the bathrooms in the center of the building,” she said.

McCoy said the safe room will be on the south side of the building in part of the playground. The safe room will have two bathrooms.

Currently those at the center have to evacuate to the Main Building during severe weather, said Art Bode, retired vice president for Business and Finance.

“So by providing a safe room out there, it allows two things,” he said.

“If we don’t have enough warning, they have a place right there where they can go.

“Secondly, anytime you take children … to a different location then it gets very hard to keep those kids together and moving in the same direction.”

McCoy said there are up to 48 children, 15 employees and six lab students in the building during an average day.

She said they practice tornado drills monthly.

“The other times when [the storm] is not immediate we get in the two bathrooms in the center of the building,” she said. “That’s a lot of people in two bathrooms.”

McCoy said she has tried to get a safe room built before in her four years at OCCC.

Bode said the funding will come from Section 13 Offset Budget of the fiscal year 2008 budget.

He said this fund is used for construction, maintenance and improvements and is funded by state allocations and carry over from the previous fiscal year. He said the project was approved at the Board of Regents meeting June 18.

Physical Plant Director J.B. Messer said Triad Design Group has already drawn plans.

He said it will be built during the next school year, but no start date has yet been set.

“We will open it to bid [for contractors] once we have the money,” Messer said.

Staff Writer Matt Caban can be reached at SeniorWriter@occc.edu.

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