The Alabama Veterans Museum and Archives in Athens now owns the Limestone County Event Center.

Limestone County Commissioners voted unanimously Monday to give the event center to the veterans museum by transferring the property deed. Commissioners also authorized Commission Chairman Collin Daly and County Administrator Pam Carter to work with County Attorney Mark Maclin to terminate the existing lease. They will work out a date to terminate the lease on the existing museum when the veterans are ready to move to the event center. 

County officials had hoped to finalize the deal two weeks ago, but the museum’s board of directors wanted an updated agreement showing the event center’s parking lot would belong to the museum. Officials also wanted to make sure the museum had insurance on the event center before the deed was transferred.

Part of the event center will continue to be rented for events, and the museum will use rent from the center to help defray costs.

According to the deed, if the veterans museum ever stops using the event center as a museum, the property will revert back to the county. Another stipulation: the building will continue to be used for the annual Limestone County Sports Hall of Fame and as a site where county election returns can be tabulated.

Commissioners said during their comment portion of the meeting they were pleased with the vote on the event center.

Commissioner Daryl Sammet: “I’m glad to get the event center over with, and I wish the veterans a lot of luck. I know they will do good with it. They’ve got the manpower and the ability to make it a good thing for North Alabama, all the way across, and I wish them luck.”

Commissioner Steve Turner: “I’d like to thank the veterans, too. Wish you success with the building. You know we support you all — have for a long time — and we will continue to do so.”

Commissioner Jason Black: “Same way with the vets. I’m glad y’all got it. I really enjoyed being a part of the Veterans Day Parade, to see how many people actually support the veterans now — the young kids, the old kids. It was a lot of people up and down the same path as we go for the Christmas parade. There were a lot of people involved. This was my first time being involved in the parade, and I was really surprised at the number of people who were there, so that’s really great.”

Commissioner Ben Harrison: “I would like to echo what my fellow commissioners have said about the transferring of the event center to the veterans museum. I’m grateful that this has actually come about. I think it’s a win-win for both of us.”

Background

Before it was an event center, the 20,000-square-foot building at 110 W. Pryor St. was a Pilgrim’s Pride chicken plant warehouse used for storage. Limestone County paid $130,000 for the building in 2007, plus $2 million to renovate it for use as an event center.

However, the event center was never as successful as county officials had hoped. Bookings were never steady, and utilities ran about $96,000 a year. Former County Commission Chairman Stanley Menefee once referred to the costly event center as “the hemorrhoid center.”

Sandy Thompson, director of the veterans museum, has said the museum board is happy to have the building and will be looking for ways to save money. Charging admission will not be one of them, however.

She also said she hopes the museum will open within a year. The museum board hired an architect when it was preparing to build additional space for the museum. She said there are some aspects of the planned new museum that will carry over to the event center space, including a small theater for films and a virtual reality system that will provide a science, technology, engineering and mathematics component to the museum.

Thompson said the front portion of the building — including the stage and a yet-to-be-determined amount of space around it — would remain an event center to be rented out to individuals and organizations.