Wilson County officials broke ground for a new expo center in East Lebanon.
The expo center will be built at the Ward Agricultural Center - the site of the Wilson County fair that many people attend in August.
The Expo Center is going to cost about $15 million. It's a $78,000 square foot multi-purpose facility that can hold more than 6,000 people for a graduation.
Supporters believe it will help bring in recreational and business events the county can't get now, because there isn't a big enough facility to host them.
They also hoped to bring in trade shows at the facility. City and county officials also hoped they'll see more sales tax revenue to pay for schools.
Wilson County has hired a marketing director to help bring events to the center.
“The venue is multipurpose, so our hope is that events ranging from business to recreation, trade shows and more will come and an event will come here and it will be something for everyone,” said Marketing Director, Charity Toombes.
Supporters of the project believed it will inject some energy into the east side of Lebanon. Most of the growth has been happening to the west.
Not everyone agreed this was a good way to spend taxpayer money. In fact, over a lot of opposition, the county commission recently passed an additional one and a half million dollars for the project, because bids came in higher than expected.
The Expo Center is scheduled to open in the Fall of 2016.
