The Four Corners School in Monticello has announced they’ll start construction on the new $8.5 million Canyon Country Discovery Center Campus in June. Janet Ross, the executive director of the school, says it’s the realization of a dream that began in 2002.
“This was actually a vision of the city of Monticello’s economic development committee who came to me and asked me to partner with them in dreaming up and planning this facility,” says Ross.
She says two million visitors from around the world pass through there each year so the Discovery Center will give them a place to stop and learn about the Colorado Plateau while stimulating the economy.
“So in 48 acres we’re going to explain 130,000 square miles,” Ross says.
She says the 22,000 square foot facility will include an exhibit hall, a night sky observatory, large meeting rooms, a library, field laboratory, classrooms and hands-on interactive learning stations.
She says nearly $1.6 million from the U.S. Economic Development Administration last year opened up matching funds from major private donors which helped start the construction phase.
The Discovery Center will open in the summer of 2015. Utilities, highway access, a yurt, walking trails and five picnic areas were finished on the site in 2013.
