Broome County and BCC Agree On Concept for Alms House Renovation

BINGHAMTON, NY - (TOWN OF DICKINSON, NY) Broome County Executive Barbara J. Fiala and Broome Community College President Dr. Laurence Spraggs today announced that an agreement is in place to study the renovation of the Alms House on campus.

As part of the agreement, Broome County will provide approximately $50,000 to fund a feasibility study to determine if the 127 year-old structure can accommodate commercial kitchen space and classroom space on the first floor, and space for offices on the second floor.

Broome County has already pledged $1.5 million towards rehabilitating the Alms House and last week Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo announced that the she has secured $1.5 million in matching state funds dedicated to preserving the aging structure.

“The Alms House is a very important part of our community and the BCC campus,” said County Executive Fiala. “I have been a strong advocate for rehabilitating the structure if we could find an appropriate use that could benefit the college, and now we have. The next step is to study whether we can make this concept a reality and I am optimistic that we can.”

“The College has been looking at ways to put a commercial kitchen on campus for quite some time, but funding was an issue and we could not find a suitable location on campus due to space limitations,” said Dr. Spraggs. “As a result we've had to lease space from BOCES for the hotel-restaurant program. Locating a commercial kitchen in the Alms House would be an opportunity to enhance and expand this important program and exploring this concept would be the next logical step.”

The kitchen would be used as a teaching kitchen for the hotel/restaurant program, but would also allow classes or other organizations the ability to prepare food for events that would be held at the Alms House or other locations on campus. BCC also currently houses and provides offices on campus for a variety of joint programs with high school's and other community organizations. The College could move those offices into the upper floors of the Alms House, freeing up much needed faculty office space on campus.

“I have always felt that if the Alms House was to be renovated, its use would have to be directly connected to the college” said Fiala. “In addition to culinary classes utilizing the space, we also strongly believe that this space could be utilized by members of the community looking to launch their own culinary endeavors.”

The county has been in discussions with legislator Steve Herz and representatives with Cornell Cooperative Extension about the feasibility of having this commercial kitchen utilized by culinary entrepreneurs and or agri-business ventures.

“This has been an extremely gratifying process working with Broome Community College, specifically Dr. Spraggs, his staff, and the college Trustees as well as Cornell Cooperative Extension and our legislators,” said Executive Fiala. “Through the give and take process we have been able to come up with an idea that seems to have generated a lot of excitement.”

“The County Executive and I have had very fruitful discussions about uses for the Alms House and other issues lately,” added Dr. Spraggs. “I am pleased that we have been able to work together to put in place the first realistic plan in more than twenty years that has the potential to address the future of the Alms House, provides a viable source of funding and identifies an academic benefit to the College. While the College must also factor in ongoing operational, maintenance and utility costs, this is a concept worth exploring.”

A resolution will be submitted to the County Legislature seeking funds to study locating an incubator kitchen at the Alms House at the May legislative session.

Published Date: 04-22-2008