20 • The Beacon March 13 , 2025

By Josie Sellers For The Beacon

Central Ohio Technical College is committed to having a presence in Coshocton , but how that looks may change in the future .

The fifth annual COTC Coshocton Campus Town Hall was held March 5 in Montgomery Hall on Whitewoman Street in Coshocton . COTC President John Berry , PhD , shared the college ’ s overall strategic plan and then took a deeper look at statistics and concerns for the Coshocton campus located in Historic Roscoe Village .

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Josie Sellers

The fifth annual COTC Coshocton Campus Town Hall was held March 5 in Montgomery Hall on Whitewoman Street in Coshocton . COTC President John Berry , PhD , shared the college ’ s overall strategic plan and then took a deeper look at the Coshocton campus .

class sizes and favorable faculty-student ratios .

“ We never want any student to say it cost too much for them to go to college ,” Berry said . “ If they must

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step out , we want it to be just a step , not a dropout . We want to help them find their way back .”

The COTC staff works hard to understand who

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BF-162058 their students are and what the needs of businesses and industries are .

“ Locally , we are very engaged in the needs of the health care field ,” Berry said . “ There was a need for respiratory therapists after COVID , and we realized we could train them here .” COVID , however , also had a negative impact on the school over all its campuses . Prepandemic numbers had enrollment at 3,450 , and now it ’ s at 3,200 . Berry said they gave themselves a five-year window to rebuild , but unfortunately , that hasn ’ t happened on all the campuses .

“ We have 200 students from Coshocton County , but they are not all physically coming here ,” Berry said . “ This is a 45,000-square-foot building , and we have 82 students taking classes here and five people working here . We need to reduce the Coshocton campus footprint .”

COTC ’ s Coshocton building is currently on the market for $ 6 million . Berry said if the whole property was bought , they would look for a new location in Coshocton County that better fits their needs .

“ We are never going to leave the community ,” he said .

The Ohio Mid-Eastern Governments Association announced the addition of Ellie Dudding as an economic and community development specialist .

Dudding completed her undergraduate studies at Ohio University , where she earned her bachelor ’ s degree in English . She then went on to earn her master ’ s degree in Appalachian studies from Appalachian State University . Prior

Other options include keeping classes on the ground-level floor and at least part of the next floor while leasing the other two floors of the four-story building . Montgomery Hall also could be divided between multiple owners .

“ We ’ d love to maintain a presence here physically ,” Berry said . “ This is where people know us and we are established at . We also could just continue to do what we are doing here , but that doesn ’ t make good sense financially .”

Any new businesses , organizations or investors interested in the building would have to have plans that fit with the atmosphere of Roscoe Village .

“ There is no strict timeline for us to do this , but the sooner we get to it , the better ,” Berry said .

They are open to ideas and appreciate feedback from the community .

“ Our commitment to Coshocton is steadfast ,” Berry said . “ We are not abandoning our post .”

For more information on COTC , visit www . cotc . edu /. The listing for Montgomery Hall at 200 N . Whitewoman St . in Coshocton can be found at www . shai-hess . com / Property-Listings /? propertyId = 1467629-sale .

to joining the OMEGA team , Dudding served as a community vitality program administrator at the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development , where she worked with Main Street communities .

“ Ellie has already proven to be an invaluable asset to our OMEGA team and to the region ,” said Dr .

See OMEGA on 21