Spaceport Visitor Center May Boost Traffic In T-or-C

By J. Hopkins
SENTINEL ŠSierra County Sentinel 2007

     T-or-C Mayor Lori Montgomery shared her vision for the proposed spaceport visitors' center at a special session called for August 14 in the Red Room of the T-or-C Civic Center. Representatives of the city, the county, Elephant Butte, the spaceport authority and the Hot Springs Motorplex development came together to discuss the possible configurations of a spaceport visitors center, and what effect the center could have on the growth of T-or-C.
     "Let's have the best visitor center for Spaceport America--and let's bring it here," Sierra County Commissioner Gary Whitehead said. "At the same time we don't want to get greedy and get into a disagreement with our partners."
     Mike Holston of the Spaceport Authority said that the visitor center at this time is a "vision," meaning that it is little more than an idea. "The spaceport is going to be two things: a technology base, the launch facility, and the companies that that kind of a facility attracts.
     "The second piece is tourism. There is an element of the spaceport that will; continue to be focused on that visitor aspect," he continued. "We at first thought that the spaceport should include a visitor center, but that has evolved into having the visitor center off-site, and that evolved into having two visitor centers: one on site and one off site. We are going to build two visitors' centers. When the time came to put numbers down on paper, we put down a half million dollars apiece to build these visitor centers.
     "We want the visitor center to be home to the beginning of the visitor's experience. We don't want cars driving to the spaceport, we want people to go there in some sort of alternative energy vehicle." Holston added that the intent is to minimize damage to the El Camino Real historical trail as well as to be "green" and environmentally friendly.
     Getting some funding to help build the visitor centers and management and operation if the visitor centers will be areas where forming partnerships may be useful, Holston went on.
     Holston said that the spaceport authority is looking for a needs assessment to be done; the request for a consultant proposal will be done by the end of the month, and the consultant's report will be due by the end of the year.
     "You can't get an idea of how big the center should be and what about the need for parking until the study is done?" T-or-C Commissioner Jerry Stagner asked.
     "The components of the visitor center are also going to drive the type of visitors that you have," City Manager Jaime Aguilera added.
     "Those questions have not been answered," Holston said. "I think at some point in the next period we need to bring in an entertainment consultant to tell us what we need to have."
     "It seems that the community needs to drive what is offered," T-or-C Mayor Lori Montgomery said. "I think that's a big, vital piece of how the spaceport visitor center is designed."
     "I firmly expect that there are a lot more layers to add to it as we go forward," Holston said.
     "I want to focus on bringing people into the downtown T-or-C area," Mayor Montgomery said. "I want to focus on what we can bring to the downtown area or as close as we can. My biggest fear the more we put on the outskirts of town the more the city will deteriorate. We don't want to lose what we have in the city itself. Whatever we build, I want it to be close to restaurants, to the galleries, to shopping."
     "We think the assets that exist in the downtown area are incredible," Greg Neal of the Hot Springs Motorplex said, "We are supporting and working with the City of T-or-C. We have been ambassadors for the area for the past three years. We want things to happen in Sierra County and in Truth or Consequences specifically, and we will work on the idea of supporting T-or-C as a destination. We want to be a resource for the city. If we can work together it will benefit us."
     The visitor center will have to be open by late 2009 or early 2010, to coincide with the opening of the spaceport, but "if there is a need for it to be open earlier, we're open to that," Holston said.
     "People see it on TV or in the papers that the spaceport is happening," SCEDO Board Member Randy Ashbaugh said. "They come here and they say 'Where is the spaceport?' so we need to have something to respond to that."
     "There are signs on both sides of town saying 'You can get there from here," Whitehead explained. "SCEDO has taken over those signs for the coming year, but so far we don't know who the customer is for the spaceport visitor center." He went on to say that SCEDO is willing to establish a temporary spaceport information center offering information and exhibits that will satisfy the curiosity of visitors.
     "If you walk out there and talk to people about the motorplex and the spaceport, people say 'Ahh, it won't happen. That's just SCEDO talking.'" Patsy Barnett said. "We need to have a picture that the local voters can see."
     "Cities have very little control over market forces," City Manager Jaime Aguilera said. "What we have control over is government buildings and government uses. If we start closing government offices downtown, it will start dying. If we can bring in things that we can control, the downtown will continue to survive. There is one thing that we can keep in mind is to think about where we locate public buildings."
     Greg Neal of the Hot Springs Motorplex said that all the documentation that is required for the NASCAR land swap has been forwarded to Washington, so that the papers may be signed as early as this week. After a 45-day comment period, lands could be released for development and development could get underway as early as the first of the year.
     "We could be ready to break ground in calendar 2008, and become operational on some aspects that same year." The first thing that will be open will be off-road racing area trails for off-road clubs to run. Plans call for a resort/RV park."
     "The community education aspect is important as well," Holston said. "In addition to a room that people can come to, we need to reach out through newspapers, radio ... something."
     "Why not consider a virtual visitor center on the web?" Neal asked. "Spaceport America is being Googled extensively" and a well-designed website could answer a lot of questions and attract people who are interested to make an in-person visit to Sierra County.
     No decisions came from the August 14 meeting, but the group will likely re-convene after the feasibility study of the visitor center is complete.