AT LONG LAST: IN THE WORKS FOR DECADES
WALNUT COVE
After decades of talk and planning, Stokes County has a community-college campus.
While Forsyth Technical Community College’s new 46-acre campus currently consists of just an eight-room pod that opened a month ago, county officials said at a ceremony yesterday that it won’t be long before a larger, permanent building sits on what was once farmland.
“This is a tangible step toward having a community-college facility here,” said Jimmy Walker, the chairman of the county’s board of commissioners.
“We have momentum, and if things go well, it won’t be but a few years until we have a brick-and-mortar structure here.”
Walker said such a building would cost about $5 million. County commissioners are in preliminary discussions on how the county would pay for the building and what it would look like.
A new facility and a better-trained work force will make the county more attractive to businesses interested in locating in Stokes County, Walker said.
In the past several years, the county has lost hundreds of agricultural jobs because of decreasing demand for tobacco.
“We’re in a transition phase in this county, and this will be a great economic boost for us,” Walker said.
Yesterday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony celebrated the college’s first permanent location in the county. For years, students either drove to Winston-Salem or attended classes in a few locations spread around the area, including the county’s government center.
Ann Watts, who directs the college’s programs in the county, said that the first classes were held in a basement in the county’s social-services building.
“I’ve been in the county for 30 years and ever since I moved here, people have talked about wanting a community college,” Watts said from her new office in the pod.
“It’s been a dream, so the realization that education is possible and convenient and local will escalate the demand for classes.”
The pod currently serves as home to the county’s Early College program, which gives high-school students a chance to earn college credit.
The Early College is a partnership between the county’s school system and Forsyth Tech. At night, Forsyth Tech offers about 15 classes to adult students in the pod, Watts said.
Some county residents still have to travel to Winston-Salem or the other area sites, depending on what they are studying. But more and more classes will be offered at the campus, which is in the center of the county.
Many of the courses will be tailored to the interests of Stokes County students, Watts said.
Among them will be a new licensed-practical-nurse program that Forsyth Tech will start in the county next fall.
lo’donnell@wsjournal.com
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