Writer: Mike James
Ashland Daily Independent

ASHLAND Ashland Inc. has given seven acres near its former Russell headquarters to Ashland Community and Technical College.

ACTC plans to sell the property and use the proceeds to help fund several projects.

The donation to the Community & Technical College Foundation of Ashland Inc., the fundraising arm of the college, will be considered a lead gift of the college's major gifts campaign, said ACTC President Gregory D. Adkins.

"We are so pleased to receive this generous gift of real estate from Ashland," Adkins said.

ACTC hasn't had the wooded hillside property appraised, but AI did so about a year ago and the value then was about $120,000, said ACTC director of advancement Frank Salisbury.

"We don't intend to locate a facility there. We intend when it's the appropriate time, to dispose of it and use the proceeds for needs here," Salisbury said.

Projects under consideration include a child care center on property the college owns on Ramey Drive near its College Drive campus, and endowment of one or more faculty chairs, said foundation president Robert Maher.

The property's location, adjacent to Our Lady of Bellefonte Hospital and across from Ashland Inc.'s former headquarters, enhances the property's value, he said. "It's on a hillside but there's sufficient acreage to be useful for a lot of things."

ACTC currently has a child care center at the College Drive campus but needs the space for other uses, mainly because enrollment has increased and Morehead State University has moved its Ashland center to ACTC, Salisbury said.

A new center would cost about $600,000, he said.

The foundation hasn't formally set a goal for the gifts campaign, but hopes to raise $3 million to $4 million, Salisbury said. The Ashland gift is "an indicator of support and a good thing to do and the right thing to do," he said.

The foundation has received other lead gifts, to the tune of about $2 million, since 2001, he said.

With increased enrollment and reduced or flat state funding over the past several years, ACTC depends more on private-sector support, said Bruce Leslie, chairman of the ACTC board of directors.

"In order to do the things we want to do with our students, it's becoming increasingly important to tap the private sector for support. Ashland (Inc.) has been extremely supportive of ACTC. We couldn't be more appreciative of their gift," he said.