Williamson County Precinct 4 Commissioner Russ Boles was joined by Williamson County Senior Director of Parks Russell Fishbeck and others to celebrate additions to the Williamson County Expo Center.
First, a ribbon cutting ceremony was held to celebrate the completion of a new 200’ x 500’ south tarmac. The multi-purpose space will be used for both parking and event space. It includes a new concrete sidewalk and walkway. The walkway improves access between facilities, as well as makes it ADA accessible.
"When I became county commissioner, one of the things I heard from people on the east side of the county is that they wanted to make sure that the county hadn’t forgotten about them. And I look at projects like this as an investment in the east side of Williamson County, investments into Taylor, and I think this is going to be fantastic," said Precinct 4 Commissioner Russ Boles.
Following the ribbon cutting ceremony, a groundbreaking ceremony was held to celebrate improvements to the arena. The arena will be widened to 125 feet by 300 feet to better serve event holders and enhance overall safety by adding more space. It is currently 106 feet by 300 feet. At the same time, box seating will be added to the arena. This will increase the overall seating capacity by approximately 250 seats. Current seating capacity is approximately 3,000 seats.
“Today, we celebrated another great enhancement to the Expo Center with the widening of the arena and addition of boxed seating. These projects will give our event holders safer and greater space for events as well as improve ease of access to the new restrooms and concessions,” said Expo Center General Manager Jason Brown.
In addition, the roof over the breezeway that collapsed during the winter storm last February will be replaced. The replacement will be paid with an insurance claim.
"It was an exciting day for the Expo Center. This facility is growing in popularity and the demand for use is steadily increasing," said Parks Director Russell Fishbeck. "This space affords us more opportunity to host larger footprint events. We are super proud of this growing facility and appreciate the resources to enhance it with voter-approved park bonds."
The design for both projects was done by Parkhill. Chasco Constructors was awarded Construction Manager for the projects for a maximum price of $2,009,747. With the exception of the roof replacement. All projects were funded with voter-approved 2019 Park Bonds and 2021 Capital Improvement Project funds.