Forsyth Tech groundbreaking ceremony officially launches construction on new Stokes County center
Special to The Chronicle
More than 80 people turned out for a groundbreaking ceremony hosted by Forsyth Tech to celebrate the commencement of construction on the college’s new Stokes County Center at 1165 Dodgetown Road in the Meadows community near Walnut Cove.
The Center represents the college’s first permanent facility in Stokes County.
On hand to offer remarks were Dr. Gary Green, president of Forsyth Tech; Ed Welch, Chair of Forsyth Tech’s Board of Trustees; Ronda Jones, Chair of the Stokes County Commissioners; and Ann Watts, director of Stokes County operations for Forsyth Tech.
Attendees included county commissioners, the county manager, members of the board of education, the school superintendent, representatives from the offices of Sen. Richard Burr and U.S. Rep. Mark Walker, State Rep. Bryan Holloway, members of Forsyth Tech’s Board of Trustees and Foundation Board, as well as students from the Stokes Early College program.
Watts expressed her excitement for the center, saying, “It’s been over 30 years in the making, and I could not be more proud.”
“We are embarking on a new era in Stokes County,” said Jones. “Education is imperative to our economy, and we could not ask for a better place or better people to move this county forward.”
Following the remarks, Green, along with 10 of the invited guests, pushed ceremonial shovels into the ground and tossed dirt to officially mark the groundbreaking of the Stokes County Center on July 27.
The new 20,000-square-foot center, which was designed by the architecture firm of Walter Robbs Callahan & Pierce, has been designed to meet the educational needs of Stokes County’s growing population.
It will offer expanded space for adult and early college students, a lab for the nursing program, facilities for EMT training and state-of-the-art science and computer labs. Plans are also in place to create within the center an agriculture and agritourism program, tapping into the unique farming opportunities available in Stokes County.
Blue Ridge Enterprises is overseeing construction of the center, which is expected to open in fall 2016.
Forsyth Tech received $6 million from Stokes County for construction of the center.
