Published: May 18, 2008 06:30 pm            

TDCJ crews give Rusk Civic Center face lift

By Cristin Ross

cross@jacksonvilleprogress.com

A landmark in Rusk is getting a new lease on life.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice work squad members are refurbishing the city’s civic center.

“It was past time for it,” Rusk Maintenance Manager Neill Holcomb said. “And they’re doing a great job out there.”

Crew members are painting all the surfaces inside and out, refurbished the ceiling and have removed the old gutters from the outside of the building.

“We’re just making it look good again,” crew supervisor Charles Session said. “The city asked us to come out and help. It was a mess.”

Session said the crews had been working on the building for about three weeks, and would probably continue for another. The TDCJ crew is providing their labor at no cost to the city.

The Rusk Civic Center, located at 555 Euclid St., at one time housed the city’s National Guard Armory.

In November 2007, the Rusk City Council gave City Manager Mike Murray permission to enter into negotiations with engineering company Brannon Corporation to secure its services to bring the dilapidated building back into working order.

The city was awarded $300,000 no-match grant from the Office of Rural Community Affairs in 2007 to renovate the facility.

“The bathrooms are in really bad shape, and the majority of the grant is to fix that,” Murray said in an earlier interview. “They will hopefully also be putting a new roof on it, redoing the electrical and redoing the air conditioning.”

According to Murray, the city has budgeted $25,000 this year for use on the civic center, and Brannon Corp. expects the engineering work to require “considerably less than that.”

Once repaired, Murray said the civic center could be used for school dances, banquets, birthdays and as an emergency storm shelter.



Editor’s note: Kelly Young contributed to this article.

        

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