Lisa Treece
Contributing Reporter
On Saturday night, July 15, over 50 people, including State Representative Mark Alford, met at the Warsaw Community Building to learn the potential fate of the Harry S. Truman Visitor Center.
The meeting was led by Peggy Crabtree-Berry and Lisa Treece.
Berry began the meeting by discussing the various lawmakers she’s been in touch with about the Visitor Center and, most specifically, District 4 U.S. Representative Mark Alford, Missouri Senators Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt, and U.S. Representative Eric Burlinson, who is actively working on legislation to aid in keeping Visitor Center's open.
Berry informed the crowd that the lawmakers whom she spoke with are supportive of the efforts to ensure that not only the facility be kept open to the public, but equally important, the overlook area remains open to the public as well.
Meeting organizers were hopeful that Jim Sandberg, the facility's Operation Manager, or a representative from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), would be there to speak on their behalf, but no such person was in attendance.
Michael Collins, a concerned citizen in attendance, stated, “If it were important to the man at the Corps, he would be here”.
In their absence, it was left to Treece to relay information from her conversation with Jim Sandberg regarding the USACE's plan for the Visitor Center.
Treece informed the crowd that Sandberg told her that the government had stopped funding Visitor Center's directly and the districts were told that they would have to implement creative means to keep their facilities open. He said this district was able to divert funds from the recreation budget to keep the Harry S. Truman Visitor Center open, but only for peak hours on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and federal holidays that fall on a Monday. Furthermore, he stated the plan was to keep the facility open until fiscal year 2022.
Sandberg also shared with Treece that his belief is the best of the options being considered is to move the USACE offices from the three buildings where they are currently housed to one location; that location being the Visitor Center. He went on to tell her that housing the offices in that facility would be a "win-win" situation. According to Sandberg, by having the offices there, the utilities would be budgeted for and the buildings, and where the offices are currently located, as well as the land around them could be leased to bring in revenue.
According to Treece, the plan that Sandberg shared not only moves the offices, but it also reduces the size of the visitor portion of the Harry S. Truman Visitor Center by building offices on the overlook level of that facility. He further said that they had looked at the option of using the other floor of the building, but that would require people to walk through the office space to get up to the overlook area.
Treece admitted to the crowd that it had been a while since she had been to the Visitor Center herself, so she and her husband made the visit on Saturday. She said she wanted to see for herself if what she had been told could be true. In her opinion, taking away the floor that is the overlook area was not the only option. She shared several alternatives that she could see as being a viable option for housing the offices without having to take away the overlook floor. She expressed that she understands what he is saying about reducing costs by combining the offices with the outlook, but she does not see the need to lose the overlook in its entirety.
The crowd seemed to be split about the need for the USACE to make that move.
Treece expressed there may need to be some compromise and shared the various ideas that came to her while at the facility.
The most viable option she could see was to remodel the entrance so the information station at the entrance would be smaller and moved to the left. There would be a wall and door on the right side of the entrance which would be the entrance to the offices, and the USACE could build offices on the other side of the walls with a hallway that could lead to the overlook, if needed. That plan would leave the left side of the building, including the space where videos are shown and classes held. The area would need to be rearranged to house the current Visitor Center display items, and possibly downsized, but it would leave at least half of the overlook, including the ability to see Harry S. Truman Dam, for the visitors to enjoy.
Many in the crowd thought that was a good option, but there were also several who still didn’t believe the offices needed to be moved at all. In some views, even if the USACE wants to consolidate the offices, they could build a building or add on to the Visitor Center to accomplish that goal without having to disrupt any of the visitor’s experience.
Treece answered several questions from the crowd.
There were a few questions she would not answer because, as she said, she could only answer questions that she had personally discussed or had asked Mr. Sandberg herself. She was very clear that she did not want to guess at answers that she did not personally and absolutely hear from Mr. Sandberg.
There were some in the crowd who continued to say there was no need to consolidate and the USACE could fund the center and increase the hours to what they were pre-COVID. However, most of the crowd expressed a willingness to compromise, but not to the extent of losing the overlook.
Towards the conclusion of the public meeting, Representative Mark Alford spoke.
Alford had previously made a statement saying that he had met with the top USACE's personnel, as well as someone who represented this district and was assured that there were no plans to close the facility and they intend to keep it open for fiscal year 2024 with the reduced hours that it is currently open. Alford stated that the Master Plan was expected to be released for comment in August and people would have an opportunity at that time to make statements.
After hearing what was said at the meeting and realizing what was told to him did not match what was told to Mrs. Treece, Alford shared his concern for the differing “stories” as well as the possibility of losing the overlook.
Alford acknowledged the well-deserved passion that the community shares and stated that this mission is also important to him. He pledged he would meet again with representatives from the USACE and get to the bottom of the situation. He went on to say that he wants to get "on" this and get answers and share ideas before the Master Plan is released next month.
The evening's meeting ended with people signing up to receive informational emails, as well as information on what they can do to volunteer and help. Treece also said that she is creating a Facebook group dedicated to preserving the Visitor Center and it will share information as well.
