Blue Mountain Community College is headquartered in Pendleton (pictured) but also operates a campus in Boardman. Facing an enrollment crunch, BMCC is planning on making changes at the Morrow County campus.
Antonio Sierra / OPB
Blue Mountain Community College is building a $13 million facility for horses in Pendleton paid for with money from the state of Oregon. Its academic purpose is still being determined.
The college broke ground late last year on the Blue Mountain Equine Center following years of pandemic-fueled delays and surges in construction costs. The original vision for the project was an indoor arena for the college’s rodeo team paired with classroom space for the college’s large animal veterinary program.
Only the arena remains a definitive part of the college’s plans ahead of the equine center’s planned opening in November.
“We are kind of organizing all of that right now,” BMCC President Mark Browning said. “Programmatically, we look at things from term to term and everything is changing so rapidly. We’ll have core agricultural and equine programs that we currently offer that will move into that space. We’ll look at anything that’s possible.”
Pendleton Mayor John Turner said the idea to build an equine center was already being discussed when he was president of the college from 2005 to 2013. The college eventually gave the project the working title of FARM II, which was meant to complement the college’s Facility for Agriculture Resource Management, built in 2017.
BMCC gained a powerful ally when former Gov. Kate Brown added the project to her 2018 budget. The Oregon Legislature followed through with funding in 2019, and the college set its sights on breaking ground in 2021.
Before any dirt moved, Browning said, the center was dealt a major setback by the COVID-19 pandemic, which tanked Oregon Lottery revenue and led the state to withdraw the funding in 2020.
Brown and the Legislature restored funding in 2021, but rising construction costs meant the equine center had to be revised down from 88,000 square feet to about half the size.
“We’re still able to do the core functions of what we intend to do there,” Browning said. “But certainly, as we look to the future, and as new opportunities arise, we’ll certainly look at what we can do.”
The college also backed off from committing the veterinary program to the space because the training classes haven’t been growing significantly in recent years. While the college briefly mulled doing drone classes in the space, Browning has remained noncommittal on the specific academic purpose of the building since 2021.
Pendleton Round-up, Sept. 16, 2022 in Pendleton, Ore.
Joni Auden Land / OPB
BMCC isn’t the only institution that holds a stake in the facility.
The city of Pendleton and the Pendleton Round-Up bought much of the land at the equine center’s location. As a result, the building will be owned by BMCC but the land itself is owned by the city of Pendleton. Additionally, Turner said the city’s convention center staff will act as an organizer for all non-educational events at the equine center.
The equine center is expected to be a boon to the Round-Up with its rodeo grounds nearby. In a statement provided by Round-Up President Tiah DeGrofft, Vice-President Tim Smith and general manager Erika Patton, the trio said the rodeo’s main interest is in the advancement of agricultural and equine education. Giving the BMCC rodeo team a permanent home at the equine center could also boost college recruitment, they said.
The outdoor Round-Up arena is typically quiet during the cold weather months, and rodeo leaders anticipate moving some of their indoor events to the college center.
Although much smaller than anticipated, Browning said the college is open to expanding the facility in the future.