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TEEX-CS 890412 (2) Wednesday, April 12, 1989, Colwell Gazette Mayor tapping hometown pride to bankroll Aggie rgmx By LEONA A!J.EN ChamberofCommercet,o, helpnmke We're ask/rig Coppeli to stretc~ those reg/onal contacts, he said. Th/sproject~toognodforthlaco~. l)uggan said because Coppell is munitytopaseon. Itis, ,t,o~,~ the beneficiary of the facility, he for anyone to let it f~, he said.~.~ hopes the civic organ/zations will After heating Duggan's presenil~ come together and help raise some t/on, the economic be~d voted Staff Writer It appeam that the Economic and Development Board, the Coppell 2000 Education Committee and several "influential Texans" all will play a role in trying to raise the necessary funds to build the $1.5 ~ buildi~4~ that will house Texas A&M's extension engineering train- Mayor Lou Duggan revealed the funding plan to the beard at a meet- ting hst week. Th~ fundraising plan wfll work because this project is too important to this area for anyone to let it lail," he said. University and city officials announced recently that they hope to move A&M's Texas F~8/neea-iag Extension Service, TEEX, to the city and that it will boost the eco- nomy by $14 million a year. They said by moving an institution of high- er learning into the dty, the corpo- rate vocational and technical training needs for the Dallas-Fort Worth area will he met. D. uggan said the first phase of the project was findin~ the 10 acres of land, which the Baptist Foundation of Texas donated on the west side of Denton Tap, north of the Cottonbelt Railroad, south of Bethel and east of Coppell. He said the next phase of the plan is putting together a task force to raise the money for the 30,000-square-foot building. According to Duggan's plan, there will be three ma~ug 8roup~ to raise a portion of the money from different sources. He s~l the core of the erfurt will be a steeting com- mit'tee of prominent Texans, ~ of whom are A&M graduates, who will work to raise money because they see having the fadfity in this area as a reg/onal benefit. "I have contacted 20 people and have already received answers from 19 people who said they are ~ and ready to help," Duggan said. "This steering committee will he comprised of prominent North Tex- ans. Anyone influential in fa/sing money is on this steering commit- tee. I see that group being the mid- die of th/s puzzle to help regionalize the effort," he said. The Coppell 2000 Education ~ will I/kely be respou~/ble for going after donations from the 9,000 registered A&M alumniin this area. "If those people-~00 each, we would be more than on our way to our goal," he said. In addition, the Economic and De- velopment Board will oversee attaining donations from the corpo- rate world. Duggan said he has akeady received an offer from GTE of its entire public rehtions depart- ment to help promote the facility. "I also have received a letter from the Metrocrest Chamber of Com- merce stating that it would like to help in any way that it can," Duggan said. "I see the Economic and De- velopment Board coordinating those activities. I see this board working with GTE and using the Metrocrest seed money for the project. He said he will be meeting with the different groups in hopes that they will come up with the money for the operating costs. "Tiffs plan will work," Duggan said. "We are working with a tax attorney on making the donations tax deductible and putting them into an account. If we do not reach our goal and the whole thing fails, which I do not anticipate happening, these people will get all the money they donated hack, plus interest. We are asking North Texans to stretch. fund the $7,500 requested by chamher for its 19~0 hedger. ~e~s had expressed ~ at the city was not getting it~ money's worth from participation the chamber. Members be~,,d their declaio~ partly on the fact that the chambe~ has promised a chamber liaison the city scheduled to come on be~ in May. That per,on will be spons~le for handling reqeest~ t.~ the chamber about C, ol~ell, coma~ with new Coppell b~inesses getting new cham~,r m~nbers.