Cement buildings on the SIUC main campus may get wet as they leak, but the university’s wooden automotive facilities in Carterville rot.

A debate in the Illinois House of Representatives concerning money for the Chicago Transit Authority is one reason lawmakers missed the Nov. 12 target date to vote on the Capital Construction Plan, said State Rep. Mike Bost, R-Carbondale. If approved, the plan would financially support construction projects across Illinois, including state school facility construction such as Morris Library and better facilities for the Automotive Technology and Aviation schools.

Bost said he hopes action on the plan will come in January.

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SIUC would receive nearly $95.6 million for building projects currently on delay. More than $43 million of the aforementioned total would be used to replace the leaky bunkers and put the automotive and aviation programs in proper education facilities. The program has been forced to move out of other bunkers on site as they have become condemned properties.

Michael Behrmann, associate professor in automotive technology, said prospective students have already been discouraged from attending SIUC because of the condition of the program’s facilities, which are currently a set of 1938 non-insulated bunkers used during World War II.

“You have to apologize for these facilities,” Behrmann said as he entered the building. “It’s an embarrassment to the state.”

SIU spokesman Dave Gross said legislators would return to Springfield for a special session to discuss the CTA support bill. Michael Madigan, D-Chicago, may act on the Capital Construction Plan after the CTA bill has been decided.

Delays in the Illinois statehouse have not been uncommon this year. Special sessions to resolve the delays have cost the state nearly $1 million extra in travel expenses and legislator salaries, Bost said. The sum does not include Blagojevich’s expenses to travel from his home in Chicago.

The projects at SIU are not the only plans put on hold as a result of missing state money. Blagojevich did not release money approved in 2002 for Illinois school districts to construct new facilities. For Du Quoin and Carterville, new high school buildings will continue to be only drawings until money is released by the state.

Gary Kelly, superintendent of Du Quoin Community Unit School District #300, said the high school has been maintaining its current facilities as best it can since applying for state money in 2002. Portable classrooms currently serving the school are in better shape than the building itself.

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Kelly said a lack of state assistance is creating a fairness issue for Du Quoin High School and other schools on the waiting list.

“I think it’s become more apparent with our students for them not to receive the things we’d like to be able to do because of the limitations in the facility,” he said.

Barton Lorimor can be reached at 536-3311 ext. 274 or [email protected].