The dedication of Barton Community College’s Agriculture and Transportation Complex on July 17 was celebrated with ribbon cuttings, speeches and tours of the facility. In her remarks at the dedication, Barton’s Director of Institutional Advancement Lindsey Bogner shared some of the history behind the effort to create the complex.

Good afternoon everyone, it’s lovely to see so many familiar and supportive faces.

Today, we celebrate the hard work, dedication, and support of many. From the original teaching farm planners, who worked to build a brighter future for our agriculture programs and industry, to those who helped raise the necessary funds to bring that plan to fruition, your efforts have been invaluable.

In 2017, we shelved a plan to build a teaching farm and a training and classroom building. Despite the hard work of our instructional team, now led by Vice President Elaine Simmons, Dr. Kathy Kottas, and Mary Foley, Executive Director of Agriculture and Industry Education, along with countless hours from faculty and staff in our agricultural department, we simply didn’t have the funding for a project of that magnitude.

However, that work was not in vain. Two years ago, we were informed of a grant opportunity through the Kansas Department of Commerce, specifically for community colleges across our state. In addition to the grant, the Kansas Department of Revenue offered tax credits to supporters of the project, allowing us to offer a tax-advantaged way to help with funding.

We pulled that plan from the shelf, blew off a little dust, and got back to work.

Our ag and transportation team, including Dr. Vic Martin, Maggie Tracy, Mark Bogner, and Tim McKeirnan, along with administration across the college, worked to update the plan to meet the needs of our students today. We also later welcomed Dustin Thompson, our new Top Tech instructor, to the team.

In 2022, we were awarded a grant for just over $1.84 million, with a required 1:1 match to be procured in a very short timeline. Together, we met with advisory boards, community partners, foundations, businesses, and individuals to find the necessary funding. Barton has met that match and secured the state grant for $1,843,594.

The Barton Foundation Board of Directors was instrumental in the creation of the Grow With Us capital campaign, and their support was crucial to the project’s successful completion. The capital campaign goal was set at $1.85 million and included the ability to pledge over time, make in-kind donations, and reserve naming rights for the facility. I also want to recognize the Foundation staff for their tireless work to help donors connect with the project in the ways that meant the most to them… and for keeping me in line.

We have many people to thank for making the dream of a new facility a reality.

Our partners at KanEquip, celebrating their 5th year at the Great Bend location, have been instrumental in both the planning of the facility and the creation of the CNH Top Tech program. They continue to support our longstanding Industrial Service Training program and have generously sponsored our Top Tech classroom. We welcome Scott DeWerff, General Manager of the Great Bend store and many other KanEquip representatives from across the region as we name the KanEquip Learning Center.

The late Keith and Marian Mull were with us from the start, with Keith working on the original group to help plan the facility. After reaching out to the Mull family, they were incredibly generous, both in Keith and Marian’s name and in memory of the late Glenn and Elaine Mull through their donor-advised fund at Golden Belt Community Foundation. Jen Ladwig, Glenn and Elaine’s daughter, lives in London, and isn’t able to be here today, but she and her sons were here last summer to tour the construction. She emailed me yesterday to tell me that she is here in spirit and is so proud of their involvement in this critical piece of community and educational infrastructure. We are honored to have Keith and Marian’s daughter and Glenn’s sister, Jeanine, and her husband, Brad, with us to celebrate the naming of the Animal Science Lab, Crop Protection Lab, and both classrooms as the Glenn and Elaine Mull Agriculture Center.

A longtime supporter and friend of the College, Lois Alban, left an estate gift to the Foundation last year, the largest gift the College has ever received. Lois supported capital projects across our Barton County campus for decades, especially in our automotive department, because she and her husband Jerry were in the industry with their business, Parts, Inc. The Foundation Board of Directors chose to recognize her legacy by dedicating the investment earnings from her gift for the next four years to this project. Lois was a firecracker of a lady and a businesswoman in a man’s world, always doing business as L.L. Alban so her partners didn’t know she was a woman until she showed up at meetings. In recognition of her support and incredible character, we are honored to celebrate the opening of this CDL shop and the state CDL license testing pad outside by naming it the L.L. Alban Transportation Training Center.

While they haven’t been built just yet, we will have a set of corrals out to the east of the facility. They will back up to the Animal Science lab so that we can take livestock directly into the lab for classroom experiences and will include a chute system. These corrals have been sponsored with a gift in honor of another local farm family, and Nelva Grimes has made a generous gift in memory of her late husband, Merlin, and his dedication to the agricultural industry in our region. We are honored to celebrate the Merlin and Nelva Grimes Memorial Corrals.

In addition to the named locations throughout the building, we are honored to recognize donors that have made significant donations to the Grow With Us capital campaign. 

The Barton Foundation Board of Directors recognized the continued legacy of donors Pete Kirkman and Bill McKown in this project. Both of these men have already left indelible marks on our campus, and the ag and transportation complex is no exception. In the building and outside, you will find ADA accessibility features, all of which are funded through contributions from the Foundation through the Bill McKown Memorial Endowment and the Kirkman Endowment for Academic Studies.

The land the facility is built on was donated to the College from the Foundation for this project, but before that, it was donated to the Foundation. The Marmie family, including Dave, Jerry, and the late Eustace through their company D.J.&E. Inc., chose to donate these 11 acres in 2006, in an incredible vote of confidence in the College’s growth and expansion, which we are able to celebrate today.

We received two additional grants for the project. 

The Schmidt Foundation, founded by Bob and Pat Schmidt of Hays, and honoring their dedication to their motto “Forward Ever. Backward Never”, provided a grant, carrying on their vision of improving the quality of life in the communities served by Eagle Communications. We welcome Gary Shorman, president of the Schmidt Foundation today to celebrate with us.

CNH, our training partner of over 28 years, provided a grant that will continue to yield growth for generations through the students and customers whose education and experiences are enhanced in this building. CNH also made significant in-kind gifts of equipment, tools, and training aides for the facility. In addition to James, who you’ve heard from today, I managed to get the tractors and swather shut down in northern Barton County, and we are joined by CNH trainers from across the country who are here at Barton for training this week.

We are joined by our friends at Farmers Bank and Trust and American Plains Co-op, who have made generous contributions to the campaign, investing in Barton students while meeting the workforce needs of our region.

During the campaign, in meeting with the Scales Technician Advisory Board, the team was approached by three of our partners, who wanted to improve the project and co-locate a full-size truck scale into the testing lot for both our CDL program and the Scales Technician program. They provided and installed the scale as an in-kind contribution. We want to thank Gene’s Scale Service, Travis Scale, and Rice Lake Weighing Systems for their generous collaboration.

In addition to the support of external partners, we included the Grow With Us capital campaign as an option for Barton employees to support through the Employee Giving Campaign for the last two years, and each year it has been one of the highest giving dedications across all of our campuses, with many employees choosing to give to this project.

I invite you to look at the program and see the numerous individuals, companies, and partners, both named and unnamed, that have made this project possible. Every dollar and every in-kind gift have had double the impact, by allowing us to match the state funds through our grant. We would have not been able to accomplish this milestone without them. While we’ve been a little busy building a building and our donor wall is not complete yet, we do have a temporary banner in its place as you come into building through the east door. 

After the ribbon cuttings, I invite you all to join us for the Open House. See firsthand the impact of your contributions and the future you have helped build. Once again, thank you all.