Iowa Western Community College will receive $14.5 million to improve campus safety after a bond proposal was approved by voters Tuesday.
The school will use the money to invest in new video surveillance cameras, doors, locks, computer equipment and other “behind-the-scenes” upgrades at each of its campuses, reports the Daily Nonpareil.
The referendum passed the 60 percent supermajority threshold required to approve the measure. People from portions of seven counties participated in the referendum, including Pottawattamie, Cass, Fremont, Harrison, Mills, Page and Shelby.
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Officials at the college, which has four campus centers on the western border of Iowa in addition to its main campus in Council Bluffs, also hope the upgrades will improve the effectiveness of their lockdown procedures.
“[The upgrades] may not be something someone picks up when they walk through campus,” school spokesman Don Kohler says. “I don’t know if someone walking up to a door will notice it’s a different door, but it’s going to allow us to do a lockdown.”
College officials have said people in the counties involved in the referendum will see a decrease in taxes because of a change in the school’s early retirement levy.
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