OTTAWA — Neosho County Community College will move to a new campus in eastern Ottawa. Dr. Vickie Smith, college president, says the college’s foundation has bought 27 acres next to K-68 and across from the Ottawa Country Club. Smith said the college will leave its present campus at Second and Beech. Neosho County Community College received a $2 million grant for new surgical technology and occupational therapy programs as well as a new science lab and the college’s architect advised that they couldn’t be put into the existing building, she said. The grant requires that the college have the programs running and enrolling students within a year and the new campus will have to be built by then, she said. Because of state law, the campus would have to be built and owned by the college foundation and leased to the college, she said. This morning, the Ottawa City Commission set a public hearing in March on its intent to issue nearly $5.3 million in bonds for the new campus.
