OTC manufacturing center marked as top funding priority by state board

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Ozarks Technical Community College’s Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Technology was recommended for funding yesterday by the Missouri Coordinating Board for Higher Education.

The OTC project, according to a news release, was the No. 1 capital funding priority by the board for fiscal year 2020. The board is recommending $5 million of an overall budget request of $55.8 million go toward the manufacturing center in Springfield.

“This is the first step in the process,” OTC Chancellor Hal Higdon said in the release. “OTC is grateful that the coordinating board sees the value of the Center for Advanced Manufacturing to our state’s economy. The next step is consideration by the governor and legislature.”

OTC intends to open the estimated $20 million center in 2022, with tax levies helping to fund the project. It will be located on the east side of the 1001 E. Chestnut Expressway campus.

The center is one of two projects OTC is planning after voters in April approved new and renewed tax levies over a 20-year period to help pay for them.

The other project, a Republic education center, has a roughly $7.3 million total project cost, OTC announced this week.