Eastern Panhandle community college moves
August 2, 2012 ·
The faculty and staff at Blue Ridge Community and Technical College in Martinsburg is settling into a new building.
For the past nine years the college has leased space from Berkeley
County in an old outlet mall
building downtown.
Pete Checkovich, president, said the new 55,000 square foot
building will allow the college to students more degree program choices.
“We have an opportunity as part of the community college
system to create new technical programs and get funding for that,” Checkovich
said. “We can apply for to create new programs for business and industry or for
the demands that the students would have where they want to become employed.”
Checkovich says Blue Ridge is
thinking about adding a plastics engineering program.
It will also offer a program in the fall in mechatronics, a
combination of mechanical, electronic and computer technology. The program
trains students for jobs in industrial and business office settings operating
the heating, lighting, air conditioning and ventilation systems.
Checkovich said the new building will allow the college to
do a better job of serving students.
“It is designed as an educational institution as opposed to
adapting so our science labs are exquisite. They are large; they have a lot of
accommodations to them. We were able to design our computer labs the way we
wanted to and of course the regular classrooms as well,” he said.
The public can see the new Blue Ridge Community and Technical College building during an open house
Friday afternoon from 2-5 p.m.