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Design
Ideas for the New Office
The new council office needs a Scouting
design.
Mike Barnard of Roadrunner District is chairing a committee to design
the outside of the building. If you have a Scouter in your unit
or know of a Scouter with expertise in architecture, Mike would
welcome their help and advice. We have hired an architect but it
would be very helpful if we could get ideas from Scouters in creating
a design concept for the front of the new building. Contact Mike
at mbarnard@woodbadge.org
On
Thursday, March 24, 2005, the Boy Scout Foundation, which owns the
Longhorn Council’s camps and offices, contracted to buy the building
at 850 Cannon in Hurst,
Texas. The new Service Center opens for business on Monday, July
18th. The Longhorn Scout
Shop in the Briarhaven building remains at its current location
indefinitely. The old building was purchased by the Overton Park United
Methodist Church next door. The Briarhaven Service Center closed for
summer shutdown on July 4th and will not reopen. Click here to see
a location map
of the new facility.
The
new facility is a 40,000 sq ft office, with some warehouse space,
located near the intersection of Precinct Line Road and Highway 26,
close to the Tarrant County College Northeast Campus. It is a facility
that was built in 1998 for UICI Insurance Company. It also includes
a retail strip center building on the east side of the lot. We are
still looking for a location for a major Cub Scout Program facility
that is close to our population centers.
For
three years Glenn Adams chaired the Service Center Committee to find
a new Service Center. The existing office is 32 years old and too
small for our current office, program, and meeting needs. We have
explored every avenue and looked at dozens of buildings to try to
find adequate accommodations. We explored building a second building
or an addition at our current facility. The cost of new construction
on our existing site was very expensive - close to $100 per sq. ft.
Our choice was to remain in West Fort Worth. Unfortunately, we were
not able to find an acceptable building that had at least 30,000 sq.
ft in West Fort Worth.
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The
leadership of the Council and the Boy Scout Foundation determined
early in the process that we would not buy or build a Service Center
that will be seen by the community as a monument. Some of our sister
councils have taken a very different approach. We want to use most
of our available funds to support our camping programs for our youth.
Currently, the Boy Scout Foundation has two offers to buy the facility
on Briarhaven. The current office has approximately 14,000 sq. ft
in it compared to 40,000 sq. ft in the new one. The new facility has
approximately 25,000 sq ft of office and 15,000 sq ft of modern warehouse
storage. The Boy Scout Foundation and the Longhorn Council completed
all of the necessary due diligence reports on the new building. All
of the building studies and reports were very positive. Remodelling
for the new office will be completed by the end of June.
The purchase of a new Service Center is to help equip our staff and
volunteers to be more effective in serving our youth. It takes lots
of storage and meeting space to plan and execute our weekend activities,
camps, programs, and trainings. The staff is thrilled about having
a loading dock which will minimize them having to unload trucks. Our
current location on Briarhaven Road has little storage. Equipment,
program gear, and office shipments must be dropped at the door step
where staff and volunteers have to move it by hand into tiny storage
areas in the building. Besides the additional work space, the new
facility will have plenty of space for Council Meetings, which has
been a problem in recent years.
Scroll down to see the pictures of the new facility. The Council has
hired an Architect Designer to help make the building look more like
a Boy Scout Service Center and work will begin soon.
Congratulations to Glenn Adams, Council Service Center Chairman, Jack
Chambers, President of the Longhorn Council and John Robinson, President
of the Boy Scout Foundation. They are great leaders with insight and
vision. |
