Future of Corbin Technology Center uncertain

The future of Corbin’s $2.15 million, 21,400 square foot Center for Technology and Community Activities is in doubt, and city leaders say they plan to meet with officials from Eastern Kentucky University in the near future to determine who will run the facility and how it will be used going forward.

Corbin City Manager Bill Ed Cannon confirmed Tuesday that the facility, located on Cumberland Falls Hwy., just below the Southeast Kentucky Agriculture and Exposition Center (The Arena), could be going through a change in management if both side aren’t able to agree to terms in the near future.

Currently, the Center is managed by Eastern Kentucky University and is used as part of its Continuing Education and Outreach Program. The facility was completed in mid-2005 and is owned by the city of Corbin. EKU and the city signed a "memorandum of agreement" that allowed the university to manage it and pay rent for it for three years. Cannon said the agreement expired nearly three years ago and that some meetings with EKU officials about its future have already taken place with no definite results.

"We’ve had some talks," Cannon said. "Everything was left in their court. Last time we met, we told their attorneys to get us a piece of paper with what they want to do and we would meet again to discuss it. That meeting took place about three months ago."

Cannon said officials with EKU wanted the city to provide $25,000 to $30,000 out of the 2011 budget to update computers and to help pay for other maintenance costs.

"We didn’t do it and won’t," Cannon said. "What we really need is another meeting to figure out where everything is going. If they are having trouble with it, then we can run it and we can make a success out of it."

Center Manager Donna Helton said she was not aware of the particulars of the negotiations taking place between EKU and the city, but said she knows there have been some discussion about "updating the agreement" both sides originally signed. EKU has been, essentially, operating under the terms of the expired agreement on a month-to-month basis.

Helton said the facility is well used. Monthly it hosts numerous classes on use of computers (everything from how to sell items on Ebay to more in depth computer programming), and other technology-centered activities, as well as arts and crafts like knitting or dancing or learning a musical instrument.

The center has a large multi-purpose room and is also used extensively for community events like meetings, conferences, and wedding receptions.

Helton said any agreement between the city and EKU would require approval from the University Council

The city constructed the Center for Technology and Community Activities with the help of about $1.8 million in grant funds from the U.S. Department of Education and the Appalachian Regional Commission. About $930,000 of the grant funding was used by EKU to furnish the facility.

Cannon said that if no agreement could be reached, then the city would most likely take control of the facility.

"One idea is to allow one management firm to run it and The Arena," Cannon said. "We are looking at several different options."