Lane College gets a $50,000 upgrade, new archway to be built on campus

JACKSON, Tenn — A big change is coming for Jackson’s historically black college.

“This is a big thing for Lane College,” said Richard Donnell, senior advisor to the college president.

Drivers crossing the railroad tracks on Lane Avenue will soon see a new addition.

“We’re going to put an overhead arch over Lane Avenue that will have “Lane College” on it and it will be the official entryway of people to the college,” Donnell said.

Donnell said  it is all thanks to a competition.

“Last year, Lane College competed against several other historically black colleges for a grant from The Home Depot.”

The competition is called “Retool Your School”.

“Based upon the votes we got and the strength of our proposal we were able to win the competition in the amount of $50,000,” Donnell said.

With over one million votes cast for the school construction on the new addition has already begun.

“We have poured the foundation right now and the columns will be poured within the next two weeks and then we have the actual arch that’s made of steel being constructed right now,” Donnell said.

It was a competition that landed some in ‘jail’.

“Our alumni and friends worked very, very hard. A lot of them went to ‘Twitter jail’ and ‘Facebook jail’ because they were voting three times a day for a six week period of time, so it just shows us that Lane is well loved and our message and our branding is really getting out there and it’s really effective,”Donnell said.

But overall it united the Dragon Community.

“It brought us all together and we’re quite proud of that.”

The arch is scheduled to be completed in early March. Officials say there will be a big celebration to welcome the new addition.

Donnell said this is exciting because there has not been construction to the entry of the college for some time.