Mingo National Wildlife Refuge getting new office, visitor's center

PUXICO, Mo. -- A new office and visitor center at Mingo National Wildlife Refuge will be more environmentally friendly and will allow for more visitors.

At an estimated cost between $3.5 and $4 million, the new facility will be about 11,000 square feet. Although the current facility is about 10,000 square feet, it also contains a basement -- a feature not included in the new facility, said Ben Mense, Refuge manager.

"The old office had no real capabilities to have school groups come in and do activities," Mense said. "With this new facility, we're fully expecting more school groups and tours in the spring. We also expect an increase in visitors."

Mingo receives about 120,000 visits a year -- from hunters to anglers to bird watchers to those observing wildlife, Mense said.

Mense said there are three parts to the new building: a headquarters office where all the administration will be housed; the visitors center where people can look at exhibits and learn about the refuge; and two multipurpose rooms that can hold 30 to 40 people per room for school groups to conduct activities while visiting Mingo.

The new facility will be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified, Mense said. It will have geothermal heating and cooling, some solar capacity and will use a rainwater catchment system, he said.

Mense said the existing building is nearly 40 years old and has been rapidly deteriorating over the past several years.

"Our basement has cracks and leaks water and has had a number of maintenance issues over the last six or eight years," he said. "The building has been on our deferred maintenance list to either get a major rehabilitation or to get replaced."

Whenever Mingo has a large project or item to purchase, it typically can't be paid for with the annual budget, Mense said.

"Sometimes we get them funded [by grants] throughout the year," he said. "This was such a large project that it was getting bypassed, and we only have so much money."

About two years ago, a group of engineers came to Mingo and conducted a study on the current building because it is in a seismic zone, Mense said. The group concluded the building would need a major rehabilitation to meet seismic codes.

"It was going to be more expensive to do a rehabilitation of the building due to the seismic codes," Mense said. "We chose to do a new building that would be just as cheap or cheaper and better designed [with] educational rooms."

About a year ago when the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was looking to fund projects like Mingo's, the refuge applied to receive assistance, Mense said. It is one of two U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's refuge office and visitor center projects to receive funding. The other project is in Wisconsin.

The new facility will be built in the same location as the current building, off Highway 51 in Stoddard County. The project includes tearing down the existing building, which means Mingo staff will need a temporary home for the next year, Mense said.

"We have two houses on the refuge that were built 30 or 40 years ago for staff members to live in and pay rent," Mense said. "One of those houses was vacant, so that's where the refuge office will be" during construction.

A groundbreaking ceremony, including a tree planting, is scheduled for Thursday.

Mense said he expects construction to begin by May 1 with the project scheduled for completion by summer 2011.