Shawnee County on Thursday entered the construction document development phase of a high-dollar project to renovate the Kansas Expocentre. The planned $45 million Expocentre improvements are to be financed using revenue from the November 2014 approval by Shawnee County voters of a ballot question extending for 14 years — until Dec. 31, 2031 — a countywide half-cent sales tax used to raise revenue for economic development and infrastructure improvements. County Commissioner Archer made reference Thursday to the county continuing to lack a funding source for an estimated $3.5 million worth of costs for the project.
County counselor Jim Crowl responded that those figures weren’t firm, with the estimate having come about after county officials asked that it include “everything we would like to see.”
Crowl said the county would have an opportunity to refine those figures once a construction manager for the project is chosen.
(Read more: Local – The Topeka Capital-Journal)