LCRA, Bluebonnet Electric Co-op award $24,238 grant to Red Rock Community Center

New HVAC units, refinished wood floors will improve almost 100-year-old meeting space

Nov. 2, 2023

BASTROP COUNTY, Texas – The Red Rock Community Center soon will receive two air-conditioning units and other needed improvements to the building, thanks to a $24,238 grant from the Lower Colorado River Authority and Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative.
 
The Community Development Partnership Program grant, along with $14,150 in matching funds from the community center, will replace aging heating, ventilation and air conditioning units with two new energy-efficient HVAC units. The funding also will pay for refinishing the building’s original pine floors and painting its exterior.
 
The community center, which currently hosts social gatherings, free festivals and a variety of other events, was built in 1929 to be the Red Rock Schoolhouse.
 
“Our center has been an essential part of this community for generations,” said Debbie Morkovsky, treasurer of the Red Rock Community Center. “People use this building for club meetings, public service presentations, fitness classes and voting, and they also use it as a place to celebrate life events with gatherings like baby showers, birthday parties, luncheons for funerals and family reunions.”
 
LCRA General Manager Phil Wilson said LCRA is proud to support the Red Rock Community Center and other projects that foster a sense of community and bring people together.
 
“Over the years, this building has provided a place for educating children, casting ballots and celebrating milestones,” Wilson said. “It warms my heart to know the center is continuing to provide so much value to the community by welcoming people to use it, and inviting area residents to special events so they can spend time with their family, friends and neighbors.”
 
Wilson said an important element in building communities is having a place for residents to get together to exchange ideas and be together for all kinds of occasions.
 
“I know it hasn’t been easy to keep the center operating, and I salute all the hard work that has gone into keeping it up and running,” he said.  
 
After the building’s conversion from a schoolhouse to a polling location in the 1960s, it fell into a state of disrepair until a handful of local residents with ties to the structure’s origins stepped in.
 
“My mother-in-law, Betty Morkovsky, was among the founding members of the board that decided the building wasn’t done serving the community and needed to be saved, so they created the Red Rock Community Center,” Morkovsky said. “In fact, some families have passed down the role of board member from generation to generation – three of our current board members are related to founding board members, including one whose father attended the Red Rock Schoolhouse.”
 
The board members set out a donation jar at every event, but still have had to make cost-cutting decisions like discontinuing the center’s trash collection and disconnecting its phone service to save money.
 
“Our years of saving and fundraising events, like our Market Days and Annual Fish Fry, allowed us to have enough for the matching funds needed for this grant, and we are thrilled to be able to make improvements the building desperately needs,” Morkovsky said. “We want to always be here for residents and we want people to know this is a safe, family-friendly space that is available for them.”
 
The Red Rock Community Center board invites community members to provide suggestions for what they would like to see happening at the center. The general meeting to make plans for the upcoming year will take place at the center on Nov. 9 at 6:30 p.m.
 
The community grant is one of 45 grants awarded recently through LCRA’s Community Development Partnership Program, which helps volunteer fire departments, local governments, emergency responders and nonprofit organizations fund capital improvement projects in LCRA’s wholesale electric, water and transmission service areas. The program is part of LCRA’s effort to give back to the communities it serves. Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative is one of LCRA’s wholesale electric customers and is a partner in the grant program.
 
Applications for the next round of grants will be accepted in January. More information is available at lcra.org/cdpp.

About LCRA

The Lower Colorado River Authority serves customers and communities throughout Texas by managing the lower Colorado River; generating and transmitting electric power; providing a clean, reliable water supply; and offering outdoor adventures at more than 40 parks along the Colorado River from the Texas Hill Country to the Gulf Coast. LCRA and its employees are committed to fulfilling our mission to enhance the quality of life of the Texans we serve through water stewardship, energy and community service. LCRA was created by the Texas Legislature in 1934 and receives no state appropriations.

Bluebonnet: Will Holford 512-332-7955
[email protected]