The Lampasas City Council on Monday will decide whether to construct a civic center at Campbell Park.

The Civic Center Committee’s preferred design — a 500-seat enclosed facility with meeting rooms, stone exterior walls and a tower structure near the entrance -- will cost about $2.4 million, according to Secord & Lebow Architects estimates discussed at a recent City Council meeting.

Other alternatives include reducing the project’s scope but still enclosing the building, or constructing the civic center in two phases as Marble Falls did with a community center it recently completed. The first phase of a two-part project would include restrooms and an open-air pavilion.

If the City Council opts to build a community meeting facility in two parts, City Manager Michael Stoldt said he would recommend complet- ing the entire project within seven years.

Depending on the building features, the pavilion portion of civic center work would cost between $1.2 million and $1.4 million, Secord & Lebow has estimated. A transfer of $875,000 in hotel/motel fund revenues, a $50,000 grant and debt issuance of $450,000 would pay for a phase one civic center.

Building a complete, enclosed civic center all at once, however, would require a debt issuance of about $1.2 million, said Jack Calvert, chairman of the Civic Center Committee.

Principal and interest for the debt on a $2.4 million facility would be about $60,000 to $65,000 higher per year than payments on a debt issuance of $450,000, Stoldt said. The additional costs equate to about three to four cents on the city tax rate, he said.

Because construction costs have decreased significantly in the last two years, a community meeting facility could cost less than architects’ estimates, Stoldt said. A favorable bidding environment likely will not account for the difference between the funds available now and those required to build a $2.4 million civic center, the city manager added.

“I agree that prices could come in a little lower than what we are guessing,” Stoldt said, “but I don’t think it’s going to be $1 million less.”

Calvert said Civic Center Committee members would prefer to build the entire civic center -- with distinctive architectural features, “not just a box” -- at one time.

Mayor Judy Hetherly and Councilman Evan Stubbs said they, too, would prefer to build a center all at once. Ms. Hetherly also cautioned against stripping too many proposed features from the civic center to save money.

Jack Shelton, who has served on a civic center committee, said the project has been on city residents’ “wish list” for 34 years. Lampasas needs an enclosed, climate-controlled facility in order to attract visitors and host conventions, he said. With a pavilion-style center, “you’ve got seven years of something that’s on the ground that gets limited use.”

Added Shelton: “$1.2 million [for a phase-one civic center] is not going to make a difference in your travel and tourism business.”

Vision Lampasas! board president Maryann Severn said a two- phase civic center would be fine. Mrs. Severn urged City Council members not to delay their decision about the facility, however, as she said other important city projects also require attention.

“We either need to do it, or put it away and quit talking about it,” Mrs. Severn said.

The lack of a large public meeting area is hampering business recruitment efforts, she added.

“My goodness, Windsor Foods has to go to Killeen to get a place for their annual Christmas banquet,” Mrs. Severn said. “We need to service our population.”

The Boys and Girls Club of Lampasas, Vision Lampasas!, Lampasas Association for the Arts and Preservation Lampasas Inc. all have written letters in favor of a civic center, said Lampasas Economic Development Coordinator Cherry Hargrove. The groups have said a center would provide meeting space for their regular activities and for events that attract out-oftown visitors.

Mrs. Hargrove recently attended the International Convention of Shopping Centers, where she said several retailers expressed interest in opening businesses in Lampasas.

“I think we’re fixing to grow, and we need to get ready,” Mrs. Hargrove said.

At the recent council meeting, Councilmen John Cole and Jerry Grayson asked how the city would staff a civic center and fund its operational costs. Stoldt said parttime work by one employee -- possibly the parks and recreation specialist recently added to the city budget -- would be adequate.

Although economic uncertainty has decreased hotel and motel visits, Stoldt said in a normal year Lampasas could designate $50,000 of hotel/motel revenue to civic center costs.

Ms. Hetherly urged council members to consider a civic center a key part of “the big picture” of city-wide efforts to revitalize Lampasas and attract visitors. A civic center, the development of Rex and Linda Johnson Park, sculpture exhibits in Campbell Park and the establishment of the Lampasas County Higher Education Center at the old Lampasas Middle School are components of “a coordinated effort,” the mayor said, to improve the city’s quality of life through education and the arts.

“Don’t think of what it is now,” the mayor said of the proposed civic center site near Hanna Springs. “Think of what it can be.”

In other recent business, the City Council:

• voted 5-0, with Cole and Councilman Brad Neely abstaining, to approve an application for 80 percent reimbursement from the Texas Department of Transportation for a sidewalk extension along Western Street from U.S. Highway 190 to Farm-to-Market Road 580 East.

• voted 6-1 to pass a resolution to seek an Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant of $35,000 for energy-efficient lighting at the Lampasas Public Library and the Senior Citizens Center. Cole cast the “no” vote.