Southwestern Community College went ahead with $2.3 million in capital improvements for their campus before they received official permission from the state. According to Becky Johnson at the Sylva Herald, they thought they would be able to slip by unnoticed, since approval would likely only take two days. As it turned out, it took seven weeks. SCC was in a hurry to build because they wanted their cosmetology program, one of the school’s largest, up and running for the fall semester. Perhaps the largest problem was the contractor, Western Builders, couldn’t get paid until the AG signed the pertinent contract. Fortunately, the state did not require the school to rip out the illegal construction, but shrugged and said oh, well.