State kicks in money for Monona County tourism project

The state is contributing to an effort to save a million-dollar tourism project being developed in western Iowa’s Monona County. The Iowa D-N-R Commission has voted to spend 200-thousand dollars to pay contractors for work on the still-unfinished Lewis and Clark Visitors Center being built near Onawa. The contractors had walked off the job with more than one-million dollars in unpaid bills. The project is about two-thirds complete and officials worry structural damage may occur if the building isn’t winterized. The money is just part of the total building plan. The D-N-R also has authorized Monona County to issue up to 400-thousand dollars in bonds to pay the bills.