Construction is near the halfway point for the three-level parking structure in Lot No. 5. The first deck is nearly completed, all columns have been installed and underground utilities are in place. Groundbreaking was held on June 18, 2008, and completion is projected for July 2009.

With enough room for 1,431 vehicles, the parking structure also will include an adjacent 3,200-square-foot facility for new Public Safety offices. McCarthy Building Cos. Inc. is the general contractor with Ken Emmons of Gafcon as project manager and International Parking Design as the project architect.

Sections of metal trellises with stucco and brick veneer will attach to the external facade. Two pedestrian bridges will connect the main campus to the parking structure. Once completed, parking on campus will be maximized.

The parking expansion is part of a facilities master plan designed to accommodate 20,000 students. The parking structure is one of several capital improvement projects made possible by the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District’s $207 million Proposition “R” bond measure approved by East County voters in 2002.

A Grossmont College Administration of Justice student with dreams of becoming a real-life CSI recently had a turn on nationwide TV – not on the popular CBS series, but on the NBC morning show “Today.” Gabrielle Wimer, a forensic technology student, was interviewed in-studio by co-anchor Matt Lauer for her remarkable sleuthing as an intern for the San Diego Police Department.

Assigned to go through hundreds of unsolved murder cases, her attention was drawn to one in particular: the brutal 1972 stabbing of Vietnam vet and postal worker Jerry Jackson. Detectives recovered fingerprint evidence, but without a national database to check, no match was made and the case eventually was shelved.