New Ozark Technical College Campus Nearby
I like to follow major construction in the area (you may have noticed). The newest such project is just down the road to the east, overlooking the U.S. 65 between Historic 165 (our road) and Hollister. The site included a huge restaurant building that was torn down last fall. The city also sold some land to the OTC on the north end to make a fair size property. Since last fall, there have been two huge billboards with the architect picture of the new facility, one at the north end, one on the south end, each facing north.
From the Hollister Police Station (just to the south of McDonalds, up the hill south), which is located just off the north east corner of the OTC property, you can see the near and the far billboards (looking south):
The sun was right in my eyes, if I moved further to the left, like I wanted to. ;-) The road, Gage St., goes up the hill to the right, just in front of the big billboard. Let's go there, next, try getting both billboards, again, with a 'big digger' over in front of the far sign.
At the top of the hill, there has been a little city park on the left (south) side of the road, on Gage St., up near 165. It was sitting on the crushed rock, here.
Allison had taken a photo toward this site, with the gazebo still there, as they were starting to remove trees and move dirt.
They moved the gazebo, and park, and parking lot, across the Gage street, to the north; directly west of the police station, on the top of the hill.
Police station is down the hill, to the right (above), and Historic 165 runs left to right, ahead, beyond the park parking area.
Now, from over on 165, looking at the site, where the restaurant used to be. Allison took this one a week or so ago, as they were just getting the digging under way.
Above, the south billboard is just to the right of the tall pole. Today, I took another photo, about the same place. You can see both the billboard and the big digger from the earlier photo.
Actually, I'm a few feet further south. That dirt pile, in first photo, is still there, I'm just "ahead" of it, so in the bottom photo we can see down the hill... all the trees are gone, and the land all leveled, sloped down the hill.
Finally, a view to the east. Across US 65, you can see over to Hollister, where an earlier "big construction project" was documented a few years ago - scuttled by the economy downturn.
Alabama just beat LSU for the National Football title. ;-)
