Jamestown Community College is seeking some assistance to remove asbestos that was discovered during a recent renovation.

In March, Kathleen Dennison said while the college was doing a remodeling project on the first floor of the Hultquist Library building, when asbestos was discovered when they removed some old carpet.

The original project, which had been approved, was $543,000 and was funded by the state, Chautauqua County, and JCC itself.

The abatement at that time was estimated to cost an additional $250,000 to remove.

The college requested the county spend $62,500, which was 25% of the total cost.

During discussions in March at county legislative committee meetings, Dennison was asked to see if the state would cover the entire portion or if it could find the funds from their own funds.

Dennison agreed to do so and appeared at the legislature’s April committee meetings.

During her appearance last week at Audit and Control, Dennison said that if the county refused to pay for 25%, the state would not pay for its share, which would be 50% of the entire cost.

The good news, however, was the project cost was reduced.

Dennison said the original budget had $104,000 for contingency.

Since discovering the asbestos, Dennison said the work at the Hultquist Library Project continued and they no longer need the entire $104,000 for contingency expenses. “While the architects did not have complete foresight in looking or thinking about asbestos, some of our other quotations came in lower than expected,” she said.

Also, the work for the asbestos project was lowered to $187,000.

Additionally, JCC has completed asbestos removal from the old School 7, which came in under budget and is using the remaining funds from that project to cover the Hultquist Library asbestos project.

With the reduced costs, JCC is now seeking $23,194 from the county.

Should that be approved, JCC will fund the same amount and the state will cover the remaining portion, around $46,400.

Dennison said if the county and state refused to pay the 75% for the asbestos abatement, JCC would be forced to cover the costs because the work couldn’t be delayed.

She said they would likely have to shelve some other approved projects.

Dennison said the college does not want to try to get funds from the foundation because the foundation is focused on raising money for the combined YMCA/JCC athletic complex and does not want to burden the foundation with any additional projects.

Both the legislature’s Audit and Control, and Administrative Services committees both approved the request at their April meetings. The full legislature will vote for final approval at the full meeting on Wednesday.