Carolina Farm Credit presented a check for $10,000 for Anson County’s proposed agri-civic center to Lee Roy Lookabill and Janine Rywak, far right. Carolina Farm Credit staff on hand for the check presentation were, from left, loan assistant Kelly Poplin, branch office coordinator and loan assistant Melissa Garrison, commercial ag loan officer Dale Stevens and ag consumer loan officer Chip Cloninger.

An agri-civic center in Anson County is one step closer to reality, after a $10,000 donation to the project from Carolina Farm Credit last week.

On Thursday, the Wadesboro office of Carolina Farm Credit presented a check for $10,000 to Janine Rywak, director of Anson County Cooperative Extension and Lee Roy Lookabill Jr., chair of the resource development committee for the Agri-Civic Center.

Half of the $10,000 donation comes from the local office and half from the corporate office, said Dale Stevens, commercial ag loan officer for the Wadesboro office of Carolina Farm Credit. “The proposed agri-civic center will serve basically all of our customers,” Stevens added. “The people this facility will serve are all our customers.”

Rywak said that Carolina Farm Credit’s donation puts the total at a little less than $1 million so far. She added that on May 5, she will give an update on the proposed agri-civic center to the county commissioners.

Requests for qualifications from architecture firms are out now, and Rywak said the committee is hoping to have a narrowed-down list in late May. An architect for the project should be chosen by August, she said.

The donation from Carolina Farm Credit follows a $100,000 pledge from Pee Dee Electric in September, along with countless other anonymous donations, Rywak said.

The proposed civic center will be a 48,000-square-foot facility that will house a 26,000-square-foot conference center. The conference center will have the ability to be separated into three separate smaller rooms and utilized for break-out spaces or smaller meeting spaces as needed. There will also be smaller pre-conference areas in addition to smaller conference rooms also available for public use.

Several agricultural offices will be housed on site as well and include the Cooperative Extension office, Brown Creek Soil & Water Conservation Department, Farm Service Agency, and Natural Resources Conservation Services.