The Taylor County Expo Center office is busy these days with people stopping by to grab “Grow Expo” yard signs that promote the $55-million-dollar bond election that, if passes, will pay for renovations to the Expo Center.
Jim Tallant dropped by the office on Wednesday to pick up signs for his neighbors. As a former Expo Center board member and a regular volunteer at the fair, it’s important to him that the bond passes because he doesn’t want to lose the 20 million dollars that comes into the local economy because of events at the Expo Center. The coliseum was built in 1969, it’s getting old and the condition is turning away potential business.
“I’ve seen personally some of these facilities start to look a little worse and conversations with events that come here and they’re already starting to look somewhere else,” Tallant said. “We don’t want to lose those.”
Equestrian events that pour money into the local economy are some of the events that could break ties with Taylor County for good if the Expo Center facilities don’t upgrade.
“Texas High School Rodeo is specifically one of them,” said Rochelle Johnson, general manager and executive vice president of the Expo Center. “We were fortunate to just receive three more years on their contract but we were up against Waco and it was a very difficult bid process and Waco came very close to winning that bid.”
Johnson said the State 4H Horse Show and the rodeo drive about 1.5 million dollars a piece of economic impact into the community.
If the bond passes it will fund renovations to the coliseum, construction of a new livestock barn, pavilion and climate-controlled multipurpose center.
“The Expo Center right now looks quite industrial,” Johnson said. “But in the demolition of the existing livestock barn that’s going to open up the whole grounds so that there will be views from the coliseum out to the midway, to the new facility area. “It’s just going to open up a whole look out here. A whole new look.
The bond will cost you 5.5 cents for every $100 dollars of property value. If you’re over 65 years old, then you won’t see any increase.
Johnson knows some people will be opposed to the cost but she argues that the economic impact gained from a thriving facility will make up for the tax increase. She’s also hoping the changes will bring more entertainment value to the area.
“I’ve been in Abilene for over 30 years and I was here when we had lots of concerts back in the 80’s and I would like to be able to bring those back.”
Right now concerts and other entertainment events are particularly problematic because the coliseum is difficult to clean. Dirt is constantly moved into and out of the coliseum for the equestrian events and that leaves a lot of dust in dressing rooms, on seats, in the sound system and ceiling tiles.
Johnson said Abilene has a lot of things going for it and very community minded people that put forth effort to make Abilene a great place to live. She wants residents to be progressive about investing in the things that will better the community. She is thankful to the people who had the vision 50 years ago to build the coliseum, the civic center and the zoo.
“We’ve come a long way with those things and they’ve served this community well,” Johnson said. “But you can’t sit on those laurels, you can’t rest on that. And if we don’t continue to upgrade and make improvements, we will have a ghost town.”
