With good luck on their side, crews installed the last 80-ton steel truss Wednesday at the arena’s construction site.

“There are a series of steps in a major project,” said Joe Coots, marketing manager for the arena. “This one happened to be one of the monumental steps.”

Other monumental steps were the ground-breaking and the beginning of the roof installation.

The next step for the center will be to pre-cast the walls, that will close up the building. This phase of the project should be finished by December, said John Gordon, center director.

“It will have substantial closure so that it will be air-tight for winter,” Gordon said. “So the outside won’t change for a while, until late March or early April.”

Another big step in construction will be to dig a 10-foot bowl inside the building for the lower level complex.

Equipment and other fixtures will be installed soon, but it’s not definite when, Coots said.

If there is a good winter, the arena will be open by fall 2002, Coots said.

“We’re right on schedule and moving right along,” Gordon said.

The $36 million undertaking funded entirely by student fees originally was scheduled for completion by spring 2002.

If students are interesting in seeing the construction online, they can visit http://www.convocenter.niu.edu.

Activities and programs for the center haven’t been set up yet, but contacts have been made.

Gordon said active booking won’t start until January.

Also, Gordon will attend the Concert Industry Consodium (CIC) conference, where he’ll see what events the arena can have.

“We’re pushing and have made contacts both local and nationally,” Gordon said. “We want people to know that we’re coming online.”

The arena can hire 200 to 300 people. Part-time positions that are open are ushers, ticket takers, security, parking attendants, housekeeping, change-over and stagehands.

“Before students leave in the spring, we hope to have a job fair for the convocation center,” said Mick Norwood, associate director of facilities services for the convocation center.

The job fair will probably be in conjunction with other job fairs that NIU sponsors, Gordon said.

“We hope to attract students, community members, retirees or ones who want a second income,” Norwood said. “It won’t be like the traditional part-time job. It will be event-related and have flexible hours.”