[nfbmi-talk] FW: saturday tours return to state capitol

[Terry D. Eagle]

A gift shop for BEP to operate?  Not likely given the BSBP staff sell-outs!

 

  _____  

 

This is relevant on a number of counts.

 

Joe

Saturday tours return to Lansing's Capitol building LANSING ? For the first
time in nearly 20 years, weekend tourists in Lansing will again be able to
tour

the city's most iconic attraction. On May 30, Saturday hours will return to
the Capitol building downtown after the Michigan State Capitol Commission
this

morning approved the addition of a new tour guide. The 136-year-old
statehouse, a National Historic Landmark, will be open May 30 for the city's
annual

Be a Tourist in Your Own Town event, and then will maintain regular 10 a.m.
to 4 p.m. hours on Saturdays beginning June 6. "I think it's going to
provide

a great service to the public," said Gary Randall, chairman of the
commission and clerk of the state House. "It really will make the Capitol a
destination

site for families across the state of Michigan. "This will be really big, I
think, for downtown," said John Truscott, vice chairman of the commission
and

a Lansing public relations executive. The new tour guide will cost about
$33,000 a year, Randall said, and any additional cost such as utilities
would

be "modest by comparison to the return on investment. The effort will be
aided by the Legislature's recent investment in added Michigan State Police
security

officers at the statehouse, he said. The commission also is exploring
whether the Capitol concession stand can be open on Saturdays and
Commissioner Tim

Bowlin, the state House business director, was tasked this morning with
looking into whether a Capitol gift shop could be opened. In recent years,
the

Capitol has undergone its broadest overhauls since a major restoration
project was completed in 1992. A state law passed last year set aside at
least $3

million a year in tobacco settlement money for upkeep there and the
commission has moved on many projects to maintain the building's historic
charm. A

$6.4 million restoration of the Capitol dome and exterior fa?ade is underway
and is expected to wrap up this fall. An $88 million Capitol Welcome Center

was announced in December, though that project has been stalled by more
recent state budget woes. Contact Lansing State Journal reporter Justin
Hinkely:

jhinkley at lsj.com Students from Burton Glen Academy in Burton, Mich., look at
the huge paintings above them in the Rotunda of the Capitol during a tour

of the building in Lansing on April 20, 2015. (Photo: Rod Sanford/Lansing
State Journal)