Included among the special appropriations in the recently passed state budget is a $1.2 million allocation to renovate a building that is less than three years old.
That is because the $3.2 million structure at the N.C. Center for Applied Textile Technology in Belmont has already been rendered obsolete — if it was ever needed in the first place. The new funding will enable Gaston College, which is taking control of the Textile Center, to add up to 18 classrooms.
“The building was built to be appropriate for housing large textile equipment, not classrooms,” said Rep. Debbie Clary, R-Cherryville. “That new building outdated itself quickly.”
The Textile Center has been around for more than 60 years to support the industry and train its workers, but it struggled in recent years to transition with diminished manufacturing in the United States. Clary, who led the effort to move control of the center to Gaston College, said it also was mismanaged under the leadership of Dr. James Lemons. She said the building was underused.
“That is totally reflective of poor planning by previous management,” Clary said.
The building project originally received funding through special appropriations in the 1997-98 state budget cycle. Democratic State Sen. David Hoyle and Republican Rep. John Rayfield, both of Gaston County, were able to win $2.44 million for the new construction. The Textile Center obtained $750,000 out of the $3.1 billion university and community college bond referendum that voters approved in 2000, in order to finish the building.
Carolina Journal last year reported in error that the building was funded completely through the bonds.
Lemons and the Textile Center came under scrutiny in the last two years because it offered many classes with a minimal number of students. A CJ analysis of the 2002-03 school year found that of its 412 classes, 56 percent of them had five or fewer students in them. Seventy-three courses recorded only one student. Many of the classes were also redundant to what Gaston College, less than 15 miles away, offered as well.
Lemons also was the subject of a state audit, which found that he had accepted outside teaching jobs at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and at Belmont Abbey College. Some of the classes met during daytime hours when the Textile Center was open.
Another earlier audit, conducted by the state’s Community College System, made several recommendations to “maximize both usage and efficiency” of the Textile Center and its facility.
The General Assembly phased out funding for Lemons’s position last year, and turned over a portion of its funding to the Hosiery Technology Center in Hickory, based at Catawba Valley Community College. The current proposed budget transfers $475,000 of the Textile Center’s annual appropriation to the Hosiery Center, which had lost that amount from a Worker Training Trust Fund that was financed through interest earned on the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund.
Dan St. Louis, director of the Hosiery Center, said he has operated on a $600,000 annual budget in recent years. The center has 13 full-time employees, and focuses on technological research and economic development for the textile industry. He said the Hosiery Center was established in 1990 at the request of many industry leaders, to help textiles maintain competitiveness and relevance.
“The Hosiery Center is doing such a wonderful job with the resources they have,” Clary said.
As for the Textile Center, Gaston College President Dr. Patricia Skinner said its “old” building will continue to house classes for industry training. She expects the new building to be primarily used for science classes as part of a college-wide expansion, mostly as a support for its nursing program. She said the duplication of classes is a thing of the past, because “it will be planned from one central location.”
She said the total cost for renovating the new building is estimated to be $1.8 million, which will require additional funds from another source.
“What we’re trying to do is make the building functional,” Skinner said.
She also said that Gaston College will receive the annual appropriation from the state that had previously gone to the Textile Center, minus the $475,000 that the Hosiery Center will now receive. Since 1996, the state gave an average of more than $1.2 million annually to the Textile Center.
The pending state budget also earmarks $500,000 for capital improvements, renovation, and equipment at Gaston College, which it may use at any of its campuses.
Paul Chesser is associate editor of Carolina Journal. Contact him at [email protected].