By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
The Kansas Oil & Gas Hall of Fame and Museum in Great Bend was created in 1990 as a way to preserve the history of the oil and gas industry. Along with seeing and interacting with the geology and drilling processes of the oil and gas production, the museum has been available for private party and meeting rentals.
Kansas Oil & Gas Museum Director Dee Volpert said demolition of an older building at the museum is underway and construction of a new events center will begin later this year.
"One of our board members, about a year ago, mentioned the idea," said Volpert. "The building we took down, just wasn't safe. It hasn't been part of our tour for a long time, but there was a lot of good equipment in there. We put the equipment in storage and tore down the building."
The new building will be larger for events space and meetings and will include a kitchenette.
"We right now we just have the Biggs building that we rent out for events," said Volpert. "It doesn't have a kitchen or anything like that. This will be more user friendly for the meetings space and events space."
Volpert said the construction company wants to begin building in August and hopefully have the new addition complete in December, weather permitting.