Show Me Center gets bigger

The addition to the Seabaugh Polytechnic Building isn't the only growth project at Southeast Missouri State University.

Construction is expected to begin within the next few weeks on a $1.5 million expansion of the Show Me Center.

The project will inconvenience some drivers seeking to park at university basketball games and other Show Me Center events, said David Ross, the arena's director.

But he said the expansion is worth it. The addition will create 5,600 square feet of storage space as well as a 3,000-square-foot outdoor patio plaza and 2,600 square feet of new office space for Southeast's men's and women's basketball coaches.

The project will nearly triple the amount of storage space, something that Ross said is desperately needed.

The money will come from university and Show Me Center funds.

Kiefner Brothers of Cape Girardeau is the general contractor on the expansion project.

Steps and several doors on the north side of the Show Me Center have been closed off in preparation for excavation work.

Construction work temporarily will remove a section of parking spaces for the handicapped, said Ross.

As a result, parking for the disabled will be moved back a row and a section of parking for university boosters will be moved even farther back for the next several months, Ross said.

"It is going to be an aggravation and we know that," Ross said. "But we are going to just plow through it and get it done."

The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of August.