In Shears, the skylight’s the limit

By Laci Sutton / Staff Writer

Hutchinson Community College is home to several exceptional learning spaces, including the Shears Technology Center located on the HutchCC main campus.

Being in the heart of Kansas, there’s no doubt the Midwest’s weather can take a toll on these structures.

On Nov. 5, crews began setting up a construction workspace with scaffolding in the hallway of Shears Technology Center.

Don Rose is the director of facilities for HutchCC and discussed the work in Shears.

“The scaffolding does two things,” Rose said. “It gives them a work platform as well as creates a path for students, faculty, and staff to walk underneath where they’re working.”

The arched ceiling in the hallway Shears is made with translucent fiberglass skylight panels.

Shears was built in 1999. Within a few years, some of the panels had already been damaged from hail storms. Those damaged panels were replaced.

As the years have gone by, the old panels had weathered, giving them a slightly different color than the new ones. 

After a few more severe storms, as well as normal wear and tear, both sets of panels had incurred some damage.

The current construction is to replace those damaged panels. 

Josh Matchett, is a sophomore at HutchCC was a little perplexed at first when he saw the construction.

“I wasn’t sure what was going on, or if we could like walk through all the stuff, but I saw other people going through, and they didn’t get in trouble, so I did too,” Matchett said.

The crews have made the walkway safe for anyone to pass through. There are rugs set at either end, with wooden boards going the full length of the workspace.

“If all goes well, hopefully, the intrusiveness of the scaffolding and that kind of stuff is down by the middle of next week,” Rose said.

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