By Linwood Outlaw III -- Daily Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN — Nearly three years, a few delays and an archaeological study later, students and staff at Lord Fairfax Community College can finally open the doors to the school's new Science and Health Professions building.

Officials at the two-year public college gave a tour of the two-story, 46,870-square-foot facility on the Middletown campus Thursday afternoon. Though officials initially wanted to have the building finished early last year, classes got under way only this week.

"I can't tell you how happy this entire team has been ... I'm almost beyond words. It's just very exciting because it's such a nice quality facility for everybody," said Kathleen Johnson, vice president of financial and administrative services.

Classes are currently being held on the first floor only. Faculty expects the building to be fully occupied by the end of the fall semester.

"The real walk-in will be when the labs are set up," said Kathleen E. Wotring, dean of business, technology, science and health professions at LFCC.

Total construction costs came in at $9.7 million, according to a press release. The facility features two nursing demonstration labs, microbiology and physiology labs, a distance learning room, a physics lab, a large lecture hall equipped with 90 seats, a general science lab, another lecture hall with 48 seats, and an emergency medical technology lab, among other lecture rooms and lab rooms.

"In general, the lecture rooms can accommodate more students. It doesn't mean that every lecture [class] size is going to get larger, but we have a lot more flexibility," Johnson said.

Resources inside the building's state-of-the-art laboratories will also enhance in-class training opportunities for students, and better prepare them for their chosen fields, Wotring said.

"It gives them the opportunity to practice that set of skills in a totally safe environment when they're not as nervous as they're going to be when they are in a real operating room," Wotring said, referring to the building's surgical technology lab. "So they can focus on learning. Faculty can focus on correcting them, getting them comfortable. So that when they go into the real situation, they can focus then on the patient."

School officials broke ground on the building in September 2005 with the hope that the facility would open in January 2007. But construction was delayed a few months later after officials found at least 30 Civil War artifacts at the site.

Among the artifacts found were artillery fragments, bullets and fired small-arms rounds — items that helped to provide information about the Battle of Cedar Creek, officials said. The state eventually agreed to loan the artifacts to LFCC for the development of a historical display.

An archaeological evaluation was done on the entire site of the science building, and a report on its findings was filed with the commonwealth. Officials were given permission to resume construction in April 2006, but further site work delays in the years that followed pushed the completion date back to the fall 2008 semester.

Nevertheless, the finished product appears to be worth the wait.

"I am very impressed and pleased with the building. It is very rewarding to see the before and the after. Our students deserved the very best. And we think with this building they have that," said Linnie S. Carter, vice president of college advancement. "I am pleased that we have state-of-the-art equipment, which will mean that our students will be well prepared when they leave us and go into the work force."

"It's an excellent facility. Because we waited so long for this building to be completed, you would hope that it would be an outstanding facility. And as it turns out, it's that and more. It's a world-class facility that's going to make a profound difference to our students," added interim LFCC president John S. Capps.

The college is also in the process of building the 30,000-square-foot Corron Community Development Center at the Middletown campus, which will support work force services, continuing education, small-business development, college advancement and community events. Solicitation of bids for the development center closed on July 15, and construction will begin once contracts have been awarded.

*Contact Linwood Outlaw III at loutlaw@nvdaily.com