Planning continues to move at a brisk pace for the new residence hall set to be built at Williston State College.

Athletic Director and dorm committee chairman Hunter Berg said they've begun to nail down things such as the location and are now focusing on the design and what kind of amenities they can afford to put into it.

"We're putting our priority list together of three or four major big-ticket items to see if what we can afford. Some of the things we'd like to have would put us over budget," said Berg.

Berg said the goal is to figure out what are the best items and amenities they can put into the new $9.375 million project without going over budget while still creating a state of the art facility for students.

"We're working on a program for the building, considering things such as the number of beds. We're also considering different heating systems," said Berg. Berg said the dorm committee's next meeting will be on Thursday and that they meet every two weeks.

He said there are a lot of items of discussion in the drive to get everything nailed down in the coming weeks and months.

He said right now the hot topic of discussion among committee members has been over what kind of heating system they want to have installed.

"What we're thinking about is either having a geothermal heating system or a traditional boiler system," said Berg.

With a geothermal heating system he said the costs would be far greater up front, but said it's more energy efficient and pays for itself in the long run. Still, he said the cost might be prohibitive with the budget they have for the project.

"We're weighing the pros and cons. We really like it but the up front cost is very high," said Berg.

One of the major decisions that has been made is the location of the building. He said after considering a few different sites on campus, they've decided to go with their initial idea of putting it next to the tennis courts.

"It's going to be an L-shaped building, but it's going to be placed a little further away from the courts than originally planned, to allow for more space between them and the main building on campus," said Berg.

He said it is going to be a little bit more south and to the west than previously planned when considering the location. He said this will allow for more even spacing between the buildings and it won't be too close to the tennis courts.

With the recent groundbreaking for the new Career and Technical Education building, it doesn't add too much extra excitement to what he's been working on.

"It's a great deal for their building and it's going to do a lot for them. Before you know it we'll be there as well," said Berg.

Berg also said things are still on schedule for the building's construction and completion. Work on the 64,000 square foot facility should beginning in spring 2010 and be completed by summer 2011, with its first students walking through its doors by that fall.

Before these targeted deadlines, a lot still needs to be done in the coming months.

Berg said they're going to be having a lot of the decisions about the building made by mid-December and have bids go out for the various parts of the project during the winter.

"It's an aggressive time-frame and we have some big decisions to make by mid-December. But I think we're lining ourselves up in a position to make some pretty good ones."