Financial services rebuilds

Lauren Pack / senior photographer Construction on the new Financial Services Building is set to be completed by February 2006. The new building was designed to be more efficient.

Construction of a new Financial Services Building has commenced on South Main Street and is expected to be finished in February 2006.

John Knight, assistant vice president of finance, said the old building was destroyed in November 2003 because of a fire that started in one of the building’s offices. The cause was a faulty extension cord. JMU spokesman Andy Perrine said, "when the fire was put out, we knew we would have to rebuild."

Winfield Hunt, director of facilities planning and construction said the construction of the new building was authorized on March 7.

Perrine said, "the design has been approved and the construction is moving forward." Currently, the construction includes excavating the ground where the building will be, due to the amount of bluestone on site.

According to Perrine, the design of the old building was not suited for a finance operation. Even though the new building is being built on less than an acre of land, it will provide a better use of space.

"[The building] should achieve enormous amounts of organizational efficiency," Perrine said.

Knight, who has worked in the finance department for 20 years, said that a benefit of the new building is that most of Financial Services’ offices will be housed in the same location, and it will be valuable to have a coordinated effort again.

After the 2003 fire, the offices contained in the building have since been spread throughout the campus.

Knight said financial services manages all of the university’s financial records. The new building will house various offices, including finance, payroll operation, accounts payable, plant fund accounting, the international account office and different procurement offices. The University Business Office will stay in Warren Hall, its current location.