By Derek Spellman
dspellman@joplinglobe.com
NEOSHO, Mo. — Construction of a visitors center at the Neosho National Fish Hatchery is on track to be done by July 2010.
“It’s going wonderful,” said David Hendrix, hatchery manager.
The hatchery broke ground on the 9,500-square-foot center in July, eyeing one year for work to be done.
Hendrix said the foundation for the new center has been laid, and work on the frame has started.
The project stalled after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service three times solicited bids for a visitors center, and each time the bids outstripped the original $2.8 million budget. In some cases, the bids exceeded the budget by more than $1 million.
Earlier this year, federal officials said they would allocate $1.7 million in additional funds for the project, bringing the total budget to $4.5 million. Crossland Construction Co. was awarded the contract to build the center.
Features of the new center include a book and souvenir shop, an exhibit hall with displays on the history of the hatchery, a display of artifacts, a large aquarium, a training room with a wet lab, and video-viewing equipment. Office space is planned for the second floor. A new parking lot will be built in the northwest corner of the property, along with a wetlands.
The center is being built in a Victorian style to invoke its past.
“The history is the important thing,” said Kay Hively, who co-wrote a book about the hatchery that recently was released.
The book, penned by Hively and local historian Larry James, tracks the hatchery’s history from its creation in 1888 to the groundbreaking ceremony earlier this year for the new center.
Hively said the story of the hatchery is one of an institution that started on a “tangled mass of undeveloped land,” survived budget cuts and turmoil, and became the oldest center of its kind in the country.
“It is as much a part of Neosho as a street or a building in town,” she said.
Local News
Related Photos
Discussion
Neosho hatchery visitors center on track
- Local News
-
-
Electric bill to drop $6 a month in Joplin
The Missouri Public Service Commission has approved a request filed by The Empire District Electric Company, based in Joplin, to lower the fuel adjustment charge (FAC) on the bills of its electric customers.
-
Mo. Legislature officially ends its 2012 session
Missouri's annual legislative session has officially come to a close.
-
Strong to severe storms forecast for Joplin region
Storms developing across the central and southern plains this afternoon are expected to migrate into the Joplin region this evening.
-
Economic-development strategies posed for Joplin region
More than 30 people shared ideas Wednesday on ways to promote economic development in the seven counties that are participating in the Joplin Regional Prosperity Initiative.
-
Kansas primary filing deadline near
Kansas candidates have until noon Friday for file for county offices in the Aug. 7 primary.
-
Date set to reintroduce rare beetle in Missouri
An endangered species of beetle will be reintroduced in southwest Missouri on June 5.
-
Senators: Missouri River flooding unifying moment
Two U.S. senators who symbolize disagreements between upstream and downstream states over management of the Missouri River say last year’s historic flooding was a unifying moment.
-
First-ever electricity for parts of India
The solar power company SunEdison is launching a program to get electricity for the first time to more than two dozen villages in India.
-
Couple 'scoop out' ice cream business from the past
When 3-year-old Brynlee Rabel tried coconut ice cream for the first time Tuesday, it was love at first taste. “She got the vanilla, but when she tasted my coconut ice cream she had to have it,” said Kayleigh Daugherty, a Joplin resident who wanted Brynlee to share the same experience she had as a little girl when she visited Anderson’s Ice Cream.
-
Missouri National Guard releases records involving soldiers who looted from Wal-Mart
The Missouri National Guard has released records confirming that four soldiers were disciplined for taking merchandise from the ruins of a Wal-Mart store in Joplin one day after the tornado that devastated the city a year ago.
- More Local News Headlines
-
Electric bill to drop $6 a month in Joplin
