During a tour of the complex Monday, Lincoln County supervisorswere impressed by improvements and upgrades made at the county’smulti-purpose facility.

Supervisors have worked closely with the Lincoln CountyMulti-Purpose Complex Commission over the past year to assist withmany of the projects, but this was the first time they toured thefacility as a group to take note of the many improvements, saidfacility manager Quinn Jordan.

The commission was created in June 2006 and tasked with makingthe facility a self-sustaining operation after the city withdrewand sold its interest to the county.

“We gave you a budget and you were kind enough to give us whatwe asked for,” said Pat McCullough, commission chairman.

The facility will complete its first budget year in Septemberhaving used approximately 93 percent of the funding, he said.

However, by using sponsors and aggressively pursuing grants,many thousands of dollars more have been spent in modernizing thefacility, he said. Supervisors providing “in kind” work on theprojects made the grants possible.

“We have reached out and tried to involve sponsors,” McCulloughsaid. “Without them, we would not be where we are today because wewouldn’t have had the budget for it.”

Work completed on the facility in the past year includes arepainting of much of the multi-purpose building’s interior, theconstruction of a business office in the foyer, new lighting in theauditorium and an entire remodeling of the arena, including theaddition of livestock washing stalls.

“We catered on the front end to the things that we felt would beof the most immediate benefit to the people,” McCullough said.

However, he said, the facelift is essentially complete and anyfurther improvements are likely to cost much more to implement.

Future plans are to construct pads for overnight camping, withpower and sewage hookups. The commission, with supervisors’approval, is also working with a local sports organization in anattempt to secure funding to create a seven-field baseball complexon unused property at the facility.

Already, McCullough said, the facility is making “firsts.” Itheld the first pole-bending event in the southern states this yearand other noteworthy events. The commission is also trying toorganize a county fair, he said.

“We wanted to do that this fall and it just didn’t cometogether,” the commission chairman said. “Now, we’re looking at aspring fair.”

Despite all the improvements and forecasted major projects stillin the pipeline, McCullough said the commission will request $3,500less from supervisors as they prepare next year’s budget. Thefacility’s budget this year was $167,934.07.

“We won’t be dropping anything out of our plans, but that shoulddo us if the sponsors and grants continue to come in,” he said.

McCullough also noted that although commissioners wereauthorized to charge the county per diem for their meetings andother expenses associated with the facility, they had not doneso.

“Not one dollar has left the treasury of this facility to acommissioner,” he said. “That’s the dedication you have of thoseserving on this board.”