By JAMES BELL
Hays Post
On May 21, NCK Tech, 2205 Wheatland, held a public auction of their latest student-built home.
“It was a good auction,” said Doug Marrs, NCK Tech instructor of construction and cabinet making, who served as the general contractor for the project. “It’s the most we have sold one for on this campus in the last seven or eight years.”
The students involved with the construction were happy to see their work generate interest from the community.
“Just from watching the students that were present, they were so excited during that bidding process to see how high the bidding was going for something they worked on,” said Sandra Gottschalk, NCK Tech dean of the Hays campus. “They were beaming with joy.”
After bidding from four serious buyers, Marrs said the final price was $160,000, but for Ron Tice, Beloit area farmer, supporting the college and getting a custom-built home the price is money well spent.
Tice has connections to the Beloit NCK Tech campus, where he attended just after the college began operating. He has also employed a number of individuals from the Hays area.
“For years, I have always gone through those houses,” Tice said. “I always watched them build them and knew they did a good job.”
Once again, he was interested in the house built in Beloit and put in bids for the house built on his local campus, but in the end, the Hays house was a better fit.
“This year I liked the one in Hays a little better,” Tice said, despite the higher final price.
The layout of the Hays house will work better with the plot where he plans to move the home near Beloit, he said. He was also a fan of some of the features incorporated into the Hays house, including the fireplace, integrated Bluetooth radio, Ring doorbell and masonry work on the outside of the house.
“It was more of what I actually wanted,” he said, adding he thought the quality of both homes was exceptional.
The sale will sustain the program for another year, something all parties involved are pleased to see continue.
“That’s the whole point of the program,” Marrs said.
And Tice is happy to help.
“It’s a nice program for the kids, and we have always supported the technical college,” he said.