Officials at Utah Valley State College know how to take a challenge sitting down.
Not only does it appear the Special Events Center under construction for UVSC will be finished early, but there will be seats.For a while, it was iffy.
Dick Chappell, vice-president of administrative services and planning, said this week the college now has funding pledged to pay for 4,000 of the 8,500 seats.
And Big D Construction is anticipating completion in August instead of December 1995.
"Construction is progressing very, very well. We're pleased with the quality and speed of the construction," said Chappell.
Construction crews are pouring the second level of the arena this week. Part of the parking is to be finished by fall, providing 1,000 much-needed spaces on the campus - almost a year early.
"We're very tickled."
At the time of groundbreaking, the $25 million facility had no funding in place for the seating. Delays had pushed the project back until increased costs of construction tacked on another $7 million to the estimated $18 million price tag.
To come in under budget, officials had a choice of starting without funds earmarked for the seats or building a smaller center.
They opted for the missing-seats plan.
However, Chappell said there will definitely be seats in the center when it's finished.
"We have developed a base of pledges and indications of support. It's moving along. We will have seats, as well as the other things we need, such as the hosting centers at both ends of the third level," said Chappell.
"This summer, we will come to the public with some plans, such as `buy a seat' kind of things," he said.
Chappell said money has been raised for one of the hosting centers and there is some hope the County Commission may sponsor the other.
Utah County commissioners originally pledged $7.5 million in restaurant sales-tax revenue to help pay general obligation bonds for the building. But Chappell said the revenue from that tax is so much more than expected, the college is hoping they may dedicate more to the center - expected to be a community center as well as a teaching facility.