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Construction begins on new home for generators; computer servers
The Advocate
After three years of vacancy, remodeling began Nov. 2 on the former MCTV space at Mt. Hood Community College.
Once the 90-day construction plan is complete, the space will be home for MHCC’s computer tech employees and computer servers.
Multnomah County TV, the public access channel for Multnomah County, used to lease the space from the college, said Michael Callaghan, manager of computer network infrastructure and telecommunications.
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Dick Byers, director of facilities management, said the project took about nine months of planning and was presented to the MHCC District board in September. The board approved the $405,060 project at its October Board meeting, and a construction contract with Sierra Construction Co. was signed Oct. 20, said Byers.
The new space will house new power generators, air conditioning, and the computer servers, as well as cubicles for the MHCC server administrators, programmers, web developers, computer tech supervisors and managers, such as Callaghan and Michael Hay, the vice president of information technology and chief information officer.
“We’re putting in good power and air conditioning. We’re putting in good wire. Everything else will be cubicles,” said Callaghan.
Right now the computer tech department is stationed in a room behind MHCC’s bookstore and prior to starting the transition into the MCTV area, the college campus had experienced power outages along with a sporadically functioning air conditioning system.
“We’ve had four or five outages this summer and in the fall because the air conditioning couldn’t keep up with demand (and) we’ve lost power. There was a car accident on Stark and 257th which hit a power pole and it took out the power of the campus. I’ve been at the college five times since June when there was a power outage or when the air conditioning failed,” said Callaghan.
The college’s computer technology department used to be housed in the building where Rooms 1511 and 1519 are located. The old computer tech offices became two classrooms, divided by a wall that can open into a larger classroom, holding up to 40 students
The wires now in place were intended to be temporary, so that computer tech employees in the temporary space can rewire everything and then move into the MCTV space.
“When we leave here, then we’ll rewire permanently and this will turn into our help desk, our hardware repair facility, and the software techs will be here as well; that way our help desk is more accessible, so the people can come and actually bring their hardware here and we can work on it. If you got a question, the help desk is right here. Come and ask a question,” said Callaghan.
The computer techs are scattered around campus but once the MCTV space is available, they will be located in one spot.
“Right now our software people are up in the 2600 rooms, our hardware people are downstairs in the basement, we have (our) help desk here, (and) we have another tech, our printing tech, who’s down in the basement with graphics. So just getting all those people in one spot will make everything a whole lot easier,” said Callaghan.
The primary server room will be in the old MCTV and a back-up room will be
in the 1511 area.
“The new one will have a generator attached so if we lose power, the generator can take over and then if we lose anything in that room, we’ll have the other room over there (room 1511) which will be our backup,” said Callaghan.
MCTV left the MHCC campus because they found a better spot to lease, Callaghan said.
“They moved out at least three years ago. They got a better lease in a newer facility,” said Callaghan.
After MCTV left, the space was mainly used for storage.
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