Amarillo College addresses presidential search, approves tax breaks for local business

HEREFORD - The Amarillo College (AC) Board of Regents held its monthly meeting at the Everett and Mabel McDougal Hinkson Memorial Campus in Hereford on Tuesday evening to discuss its presidential search, board leadership and a tax abatement for a local business.

Anette Carlisle, chairperson of the board, discussed the status of the school's search for a new president. At its last session, the board voted not to take action on a presidential finalist.

“We have talked about opening the position to applications in August so that we can start interviewing in September, but no decisions have been made,” Carlisle said. “We hope to have a lone finalist by the end of the year. Interim president Denese Skinner is doing a wonderful job, so we will not rush the decision on this particularly prominent position.”

Andrew Bowne, previously president of Johnson County Community College, was one of the two finalists who withdrew his name from consideration for personal reasons and accepted the president position on May 15 at Tarrant County Southwest College in Arlington. Bowne was one of more than 20 applicants who applied for the AC position.

Also announced at the meeting was the naming of board member Jay Barrett, a principal for AmTech Career Academy, as the new chairperson, with John Betancourt named vice-chairman. Jeff Turner was also named a non-voting board member from the Dumas campus.

The board unanimously approved an eight-year tax abatement for Sage Oil Vac to expand in Randall County. Under this abatement, Sage Oil Vac will receive an 80% tax abatement for the next eight years, which is expected to result in around $128,000 in tax savings.

Kevin Carter, president of the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation, spoke about getting the last entity in place to make Sage Oil Vac's new $12 million facility in the South Georgia Business Park a reality.

“When they complete their full expansion, this will add 125 new jobs, which will boost the area economy and create more of a tax base in the community,” Carter said.

Carlisle stressed that the deal was good for the community and could create more opportunities for graduates.

“This helps improve the workforce, and many of the folks that could be hired could well be trained at Amarillo College,” she said. “This improves the amount of tax money that the college will use for its programs in the long run. The land as it stands now brings in no revenue, and this adds a lot of value to that land owned by the city. So, while we will only get 20% of taxes for the next eight years, which is more than we are getting now, once the value grows from this company building on it, we will get increased tax dollars into our system, which will benefit students."

This article originally appeared on Amarillo Globe-News: Amarillo College addresses president search, OKs business tax breaks