By nfosheim on 10/5/2011 7:34 AM

Here is a preview of what is to come at the Lake Region Business Development Center. By this weekend, the front of this building will look very different!

By nfosheim on 9/21/2011 7:28 AM

Despite the rainy weather a group of 8 volunteers rolled up their sleeves and got to work. The group removed carpet, scraped paint, and swept floors. This group invested a total of 20 hours of volunteer time and sent 2 truck loads of garbage to the dump. That brings the 4-night cleanup totals to over 132 volunteer hours worked and 13 trucks of garbage removed! Stay tuned for more exciting news...

By nfosheim on 8/30/2011 11:02 AM

Check out this week's Reporter and Farmer for a great article about the Webster Area Development Corporation and this project.

We're approacing some important milestones in the history of the building. Fifty years ago construction was starting to wrap up. If you are a faithful reader of the Reporter and Farmer, they have had some interesting excerpts in the Memory Lane column highlighting some headlines from the building fifty years ago.

By nfosheim on 8/23/2011 10:54 AM

Round 3 with the cleanup crew last night. It was extremely warm, but 8 volunteers showed up and spent a combined 16 hours cleaning and loaded 2 trucks with garbage. Our three night total brings us to over 115 volunteer hours invested in this project! Don't worry, still plenty of work and clean up to be done...

On Friday, 8/19, board members Dave Hahler and Morgan Dorsett met with a reporter from the local paper, the Reporter and Farmer, for an interview about the progress we've been making on the project. Look for this article and pictures to come out within the next week.

Look for new windows and some landscaping to be completed yet this fall...

By nfosheim on 8/9/2011 10:49 AM

The clean up crew was here for Round 2 last night. Our team of 8 volunteers worked a total of 37 hours and sent 4 trucks to the dump. Our work was made easier this time by the addition of board member Dave Hahler's yard tractor.

It is getting easier to see what this building could be rather than what it was.

By nfosheim on 8/3/2011 10:44 AM

The roofers were here bright and early this morning to replace a section of the roof on the building. Now we can continue improving the inside of the building with confidence knowing that it won't get wet!

By nfosheim on 7/13/2011 10:32 AM

This project continues to amaze us everyday. Not only do we learn something new about the building everyday, but how important it is to this community. It was fun to work on a project that not only the WADC board rallies around, but energizes the community as well.

Last night was the first of several cleanup nights scheduled for the building. A group of 13 community volunteers invested over 60 hours of clean up time into the building. The result was five dump truck loads of garbage and a much cleaner building! Walls were removed, floors were swept, and windows were cleaned. Check out our photo album for pictures...

Special thanks goes out to our volunteers and the City of Webster, who provided the dump truck and who also helps with the maintenance of the grounds. 

 

By nfosheim on 7/6/2011 10:14 AM

In doing some research on the history of the building I came across this letter from July of 1973 written by Lavern Batie, Mayor: The City of Webster was selected as a site of one of the original Brackish Water Conversion Demonstration Plants in the United States constructed in 1961. Mason-Rust under contract with the Office of Saline Water, Washington, D.C., assumed management, maintenance and operations in March 1962. The demonstration or test bed electrodialysis plant was operated until June 1971. During the nine years of operation, capacity was increased from 250,000 to 325,000 gallons of water per day with the City of Webster using the water output. Various additions were added to the facility and staff over the years for engineering and development activities in water pretreatment and other membrane water desalination processes including the newer reverse osmosis method which continued until the end of 1972. Word was then received from Mason-Rust that it would be phased out. The United States Department...

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By nfosheim on 7/1/2011 10:08 AM

We received more good news yesterday from USDA Rural Development in the form of grant funding. WADC will receive dollars from the Rural Business Enterprise Grant program to help with renovations that need to happen at the building.

Plans are taking shape to make several improvements to the building over the next few months.

Stay tuned for more updates...

By nfosheim on 6/30/2011 4:00 PM

Today, the Webster Area Development Corporation officially took ownership of the former Lake Region Vocational Education Center! This caps a long process of brainstorming, grant writing, environmental assessments, etc...

Look for major changes to take place over the next few months.

Special thanks to Webster Scale, previous owners of the building, for their continued committment to community development and progress.