Visitors center on time, budget

December 27, 2012, 10:00 pm by Adam Troxtell

Construction workers apply white stone to the outside of the new Visitors Center, which is on schedule to be complete by March 1, 2013.

Frequent users of US 281 in Marble Falls are now able to get a glimpse of how the center of town will look once the new Visitors Center is complete, with the white stone exterior almost complete.

"We’re proud of it,” Marble Falls/Lake LBJ Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Bill Rives said. "It has super potential to boost the local economy and the economy of the Highland Lakes.”

Construction began on the pie-shaped structure on June 1, and it is still on schedule to be complete by March 1 of next year, local contractor Mike McClung said. It is also still within its $1.4 million budget, all of which is being taken from the Hotel Occupancy Tax.

"It’s all visitors,” Rives said. "I always like to say we’re naming it after the people who pay for it.”

Part of Second Street east of US 281 will be closed from Jan. 2 to Feb. 28 for the first two months of 2013 as construction on the Visitors Center and on a new parking lot at the Blue Bonnet Café continues, meaning traffic from 281 will have to use Third Street or streets farther north to turn east.

For the full story, see Friday's Highlander.