Visitor center to be built for Alligator River refuge in N.C.

ROANOKE ISLAND, N.C. 

Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge has a Web site, brochures and maps available for would-be visitors. What it doesn't have is a visitor center.

But with the recent infusion of federal stimulus money, a $4.9 million contract has been awarded for construction of a new visitor center and refuge headquarters to be built within 18 months on Roanoke Island.

"It'll be a great improvement for us," said Scott Lanier, deputy refuge manager.

"We'll have a first-class facility to work out of. It'll help us technology-wise too, because we'll be able to house" a mapping system, Lanier said.

"More important than that, it'll be a tremendous opportunity for us to provide outreach to the public."

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced the awarding of the contract last week.

There are a few signs and kiosks off U.S. 64, but little else to inform people about the 154,000-acre refuge, Lanier said.

And the refuge's Manteo office has a limited visitor contact area.

"We've got a desk, a couple of stuffed bears and a stuffed falcon," he said, "and that's about it."

Alligator River, established in 1984, straddles mainland Dare and Hyde counties and attracts about 45,000 visitors annually.

The refuge harbors large populations of bear, red wolves, raptors, birds and numerous other wildlife.

The proposed 18,000-square-foot facility will be built on 35 acres of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service land purchased in 1989 on the north end of Roanoke Island.

MWH Constructors Inc. of Broomfield, Colo., will design a "green" building, and the site will include educational displays such as sea levels and conservation, nature exhibits about local flora and fauna, and walking trails through the wooded grounds.

It will be located across from the entrance to Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, where the headquarters for the National Park Service Outer Banks Group is situated.

The park also is the location of the Elizabethan

Gardens and Waterside Theatre, where the outdoor symphonic drama "The Lost Colony" is produced every summer.

Lanier said that a total of $6.65 million was allocated for the project, Gateway Visitor Center and Headquarters, from American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funds.

Funds in excess of the construction contract, he said, will be put toward other project needs.

The center will serve as an introduction to not only Alligator River, he said, but also for the other northeastern North Carolina refuges: Macka y Island, Currituck, Roanoke River, Pocosin Lakes, Pea Island, Mattamuskeet, Swanquarter and Cedar Island.

"You can go there, and it will tell you a little bit about all these refuges," Lanier said.

"The Outer Banks receives a heavy visitation. We've always recognized that this would be a way to reach a lot of people."

Recovery funds also include $750,000 for habitat improvement projects in the Coastal Plain refuges complex, which excludes Cedar Island, Swanquarter and Mattamuskeet, Lanier said.

Projects will include repair and restoration of bird impoundments, dikes and roads in the refuges.

Catherine Kozak, (252) 441-1711, cate.kozak@pilotonline.com