Tech official renews college’s interest in Oconee campus

An official of Tri-County Technical College renewed to the Oconee County Council last night his college’s interest in building Tech’s first campus in the county. Tech, which is based in Pendleton, already operates satellite campuses in its two other service counties: Anderson and Pickens. And the lack of an official campus in Oconee is a sore point with members of the county council. The council last night heard from Tech’s Galen DeHay. “It is taking a while to happen,” he said, “but again we are doing it the right way. We are in the process of site selection right now and, in parallel, we’ve also commissioned a master plan.” After hearing the Tech official lay out the steps before the state will approve a campus, council members questioned DeHay as to how many years it would take to have a campus ready. A location for such a campus is still being investigated, but the council has been told it’s likely to cost the county $700 thousand for the property.