By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
County and city officials are pinning a lot of hopes on creation of the Children’s Discovery Center in downtown St. Joseph.
Buchanan County Presiding Commissioner Lee Sawyer says creation of the Children’s Discovery Center will give the area an attraction once only available in much larger cities.
Sawyer says he’s excited about the plans the Mosaic Life Care Foundation has for the Discovery Center just now under construction in the Plymouth Building.
“There are just so many reasons to believe that this is going to be a big shot in the arm for downtown,” Sawyer tells host Barry Birr during a recent visit on the KFEQ Hotline. “It’s going to be a great opportunity for our young people who will have a chance to work in these interactive learning environments that these kinds of facilities nowadays have. It’s really remarkable stuff.”
Construction should take about two years.
Sawyer says the Discovery Center will be comparable to similar centers in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska as well as in Kansas City.
Sawyer is excited about the promise of the discovery center brings.
“I think the community deserves this. I think it’s perfect for us and I think it’s a difference maker going forward,” Sawyer says.
The project is a collaboration between the Mosaic Life Care Foundation, Mosaic Life Care, Buchanan County, and the City of St. Joseph. County and city officials set aside federal money given as part of coronavirus pandemic economic relief to help finance construction of the center.
St. Joseph City Manager Bryan Carter points out the city has purchased a lot at 513 Felix Street near the Discovery Center as part of the revival of the corridor that includes the Civic Arena.
“Discovery Center can be an anchor for really bringing a whole lot of activity right back in there,” Carter tells Birr during his stint on the KFEQ Hotline.
Carter says the city council purchased the lot at 513 Felix as part of its efforts to revive the corridor between the Civic Arena and the Discovery Center.
“We have a parking garage there that we’re looking for solutions on,” Carter says. “It needs some work. We’re looking for ways to get that work done. But that garage and then that link between that garage and the Discovery Center will be critically important and 513 Felix was one those pieces of that link.”
Carter says the Discovery Center could prove to help revitalize a portion of downtown St. Joseph that has been stagnant for some time.