 A Publication of Historic Georgetown, Inc. Volume XXXIII, No. 1 Spring 2003 |
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A Publication of Historic Georgetown, Inc. Volume XXXIII, No. 1 Spring 2003 |
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The Gateway
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By Ronald J. Neely I am pleased to report that the Gateway Visitor Center project is proceeding on schedule. In terms of the fund raising, donations, grants and pledges in the amount of $1,305,000 have been received and we expect the balance to be in hand by late summer. This amount represents 87% of our goal of $1,500,000 and has enabled us to begin the construction of the building. On March 11, we held a public bid opening at the Georgetown Community Center. There were twelve pre-qualified bidders, and we selected the low bid of $949,000 submitted by Key Construction, Inc. of Lone Tree, Colorado. The ground-breaking ceremony took place Saturday, April 26th at 10:30 a.m., and construction is scheduled to begin in early May, 2003. Construction will take six to eight months. Upon completion of the building, the furnishings and exhibits will be installed. With good fortune in regard to weather and fund raising, we hope to have the entire project complete by January 1, 2004. Our theme for the interpretive exhibits is: the Georgetown-Silver Plume National Historic Landmark District - A Place Preserved. The exhibits will consist of several large photomurals of various buildings, street scenes and scenery throughout the western end of Clear Creek County, and computer kiosks detailing the activities of our many partners throughout the Landmark District, the Silver Heritage Area and the Guanella Pass Historic and Scenic Byway. We plan to produce a thirty-minute video for sale, with a nine to eleven-minute version of the video running continuously at the new visitor center. During construction, we are leasing the old Dairy King building, kitty corner from the existing visitor center. This will enable us to provide visitor information and restrooms to the many visitors and travelers who presently use our existing facility. While our services will be reduced during the construction period (i.e. no 24 hour restrooms), we will still be offering services to a substantial number of visitors and travelers, and will be advising them of the many attributes of our towns and the surrounding area. You might be interested in knowing that attendance figures have increased this past year. For our fiscal year ending April 30, 2002, we had 101,756 visitors. During our current fiscal year, we have had 154,281 visitors, an increase of 52%. It would appear that we have selected an appropriate location for our center. We are particularly thankful to all our donors who have made this project possible. If you haven't yet had the opportunity to make a contribution to this most important effort, please feel free to contact the offices of HGI. |
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