By Taylor Boyd
The Patrick County Tourism Office will start
Work to transform the former Lemon’s Jewelry Store into a new visitor center set to get underway early this month.
The plan that included a one-year lease on the building was approved by a majority vote at the Dec. 14 meeting of the Patrick County Board of Supervisors.
Crystal Harris, of the of the Smith River District, abstained from the vote.
“I felt it was just not the right time” to start the project, she said.
Sandra Belcher, director of tourism and marketing, said the visitor’s center is long overdue.
“Every county has a visitors center. It’s kind of like we’re going to be authentic now,” Belcher said.
Currently, there are similar visitor centers in Meadows of Dan and in the Patrick County Chamber of Commerce in Stuart.
Creating the county initiative “is just the natural next step of any tourism department” Sarah Sheppard, assistant director of tourism and marketing, added.
Belcher said the center will include an exhibit featuring attractions in the county, in addition to serving as an information center.
“It’s going to be a go to place for showcasing festivals and artisans and a little bit of everything,” she said.
The center also will include information about attractions in each community, she added.
“We’re hoping to showcase the wineries, Laurel Hill, the festivals” depending on the time of year, Belcher said, adding the center also will host a display room and serve as a gathering place for the community.
“Hopefully, we can have some food truck Sundays and music on Friday evenings. Something like that to kind of anchor the uptown area after 3 p.m. on the weekends,” she said.
Belcher said her office began working on a plan for the center in early 2020. She initially presented it at the Nov. 16 supervisors meeting. The board requested additional information about aspects of the proposal, including the lease.
Belcher said the one-year lease was due to people feeling “skeptical about how many visitors come into the county looking for information.”
Before COVID-19, Belcher said the chamber reported more than 1,000 people visited to get information about the county.
The chamber office is “only open from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., four days a week,” Belcher said.
“So, the numbers are kind of skewed in that respect,” Sheppard added.
Belcher said she does believe the new office will be a permanent fixture in the new location.
“Personally, I see it moving to a larger location, somewhere Uptown,” she said.
The rental agreement for the location began on Jan. 1, and Belcher said the department plans to begin working on the center the following week.
“Right now, we’re just trying to figure out how to get in, how to set things up, and how to hire people through our Workforce Career Center and Goodwill Industries,” she said.
“We’re going to get in there, get it set up, and get all the kinks worked out. Hopefully, we’re going to be ready for what we keep seeing for the projections that the travel industry is going to pick back up in the summer. So hopefully, we’ll get all our kinks worked out before the summer and we’ll be ready to hit it hard when we get our travelers back,” Sheppard said.
Belcher did not return a call for information about the cost of the lease, the renovations of the square-footage of the facility.
Donna Shough, the county’s finance director, said she did not have that information.
