Education Village in Williams taking shape

The new Education Village in east Williams is taking shape, but when it will be completed will depend largely on Mother Nature — and more rain is expect today.

"It is scheduled to be done on May 15, but we won't know until we get closer. It depends on the weather," said Stan Lentz, the field supervisor of the $11.5 million Colusa County Office of Education project.

The first phase is under construction now.

It includes seven classrooms for special education, alternative education, adult transition and preschool services. There is some administrative space as well.

Currently, students with special physical needs attend school outside of the county.

It will include a therapy room and gardens designed to assist n all the special education programs, officials said.

The project is funded through state grants, and if additional revenues can be found, the plan is to move the entire Office of Education to that location.

Lentz, who works for Swank Construction of Vacaville, said if the storm that is predicted for the weekend comes, it will slow the work down again.

December's rains put the project back several weeks — but winter delays are expected.

"We just deal with it," Lentz said.

Although rarely are there more than 40 to 50 workers on site at any one time, the whole project provides work for more than 200 construction workers.

However, none of the subcontractors working on the project are from Colusa County. It is not known if any of the laborers are local residents.

It is the second education-related project in the E and Margurite streets area.

A satellite campus for Woodland Community College is just north of the Education Village, and the two will be connected with walkways.

Planning for the project started more than a decade ago.

It sits on 11 acres, at a cost of $3.4 million to the V & R Land Corp.