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.