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ISU To Spend $6 Million On Farmland And Building Repairs

Staff
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WGLT
Braden Auditorium in ISU's Bone Student Center would get new curtains, sound tiles, and paint among a broader package of campus improvements heading to Trustees for approval.

Illinois State University is planning to expand the University Farm by 80 acres.

Trustees will decide Saturday whether to spend up to $810,000 to buy the Mifflin farm in rural Chenoa just north of the existing ISU Farm near Lexington. University staff said the addition will be strategic and useful for additional farming and research.

Trustees will also talk about spending $625,000 on refurbishing Braden Auditorium in the Bone Student Center. The project would include new acoustic panels, painting, and new motorized stage and sidewall curtains. It would be the first paint job in the auditorium in two decades.

Staff has proposed spending another $2.53 million on building roofs. The roofs of the Ropp Agriculture building, Turner Hall, and the Science Lab Building are all at least 20 years old and have had leaks and or collapses.

Also on the project list is the third set of emergency repairs to the fine arts complex. The General Assembly approved building a new fine arts center 10 years ago but has never given out the money. These repairs are to bathroom plumbing, water pipes, isolation valves, and water pumps. That project is about $3 million.

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WGLT Senior Reporter Charlie Schlenker has spent more than three award-winning decades in radio. He lives in Normal with his family.
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