DECATUR - The long-awaited joint use facility at Richland Community College finally will start to become a reality Friday.

At the Richland Board of Trustees meeting Monday, college President Gayle Saunders announced that the groundbreaking is set for 10 a.m. Friday,.;just north of the main campus.

The new building will be dubbed the Center for Sustainability and Innovation. The building is a cooperative venture between Richland and the University of Illinois and will be a "green" building, built with conservation and.;natural energy resources in mind.

"They say we don't inherit the earth from our fathers; we borrow it from our children," said Greg Florian, vice president of finance, who has been a driving force behind the building project.

Other recent building projects at Richland either are complete or are nearing completion, he told the board. The culinary arts.;center is finished except for some minor equipment installation, and the first class is under way.

The chef and students will have their first public display of their talents Sept. 11, when Richland hosts the Chamber of Commerce Business After Hours event.

Saunders also announced that the Illinois Senate overrode.;Gov. Rod Blagojevich's veto of House Bill 4189, which affirmed that community colleges are units of local government.

The statewide argument over whether community colleges were part of state government or units of local government has been under way for many months, and after the House and Senate passed HB 4189, the governor's veto left the matter in doubt again.

"(The override) forces the bill to become law," Saunders said, drawing applause from the board and the audience at the meeting.

In other business, the board approved the hiring of Aaron Sarff as radiology program director, Dawn Schrock as director of early childhood education and Richard Harmon as human patient simulator and lab coordinator.

Saunders also asked the board to consider expanding Richland's offsite offerings to include a presence on the west side of Decatur and possibly Moweaqua.

The board will meet at the Moweaqua Lions Club on Sept. 16 as part of its occasional meetings in other communities in the college's district, and Saunders said offering some courses in the southern part of the district probably would be something Moweaqua citizens would want to discuss at that meeting.

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