Unfinished Reelfoot Lake visitors center likely to be torn down for scrap

TIPTONVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — An unfinished visitors center designed to showcase Tennessee’s largest natural lake could be torn down and sold for scrap.

The Commercial Appeal reports the nearly $2 million Reelfoot Lake State Park interpretive visitors center has been scuttled after a Tennessee Department of Transportation internal audit and a state Comptroller of the Treasury report found improprieties in the bidding procedures the nonprofit Mississippi River Corridor-Tennessee used to construct the facility.

TDOT chief engineer Paul Degges says up to $700,000 had been spent so far. MRCT president Diana Threadgill says they were unfamiliar with the detailed grant requirements, and the problems weren’t a result of fraud.

Degges says it’s likely no more federal grant funds can be used on the project, and selling material is the best chance to recoup costs.