By Lacie Morrison
lmorrison@mineralwellsindex.com

From a U.S. senator to a 7-year-old boy with a flashlight, it was an eclectic blend of people who toured inside the Baker Hotel’s lobby late Saturday afternoon.

U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, along with his wife, Sandy, walked with Mineral Wells Mayor Mike Allen, his wife, Sharon, and a number of city officials through a few of the rooms, seeing the building’s current state of faded carpets, fallen plaster and broken windows.

As Cornyn viewed the hotel’s lobby with its large windows, ornate ceiling fixtures and balcony and a side room where rose-colored glass cast a rosy hue to any reflection, representatives from Hunter Chase and Vision Southwest spoke with him about the hotel’s possibilities.

“It’s going to be a project I believe will put the heart back in Mineral Wells,” Laird Fairchild, of Hunter Chase, told the Index. “The timing is perfect. Mineral Wells is growing.

“I think the historic value is so significant, it’ll help sell itself...”

As he walked through another room in need of upkeep and repair, Fairchild added, “It may even attract a documentary during the renovations.”

“What a magnificent historic property it is,” remarked Cornyn after his brief tour of the Baker Hotel. “I think I can see why people are so excited about the possibility that it could be restored to its former glory and I’m going to try to help.”

“It’s going to be a pretty exciting thing for the city when it opens,” remarked Nels Nelson, with Visions Southwest, a development group.

During his Mineral Wells visit, the senator also met with former Mineral Wells mayor Clarence Holliman and toured the Dunbar school building on U.S. Highway 281 South.

“This is something my good friend Chet [Upham] had written about,” Cornyn said. “This is another historic building and a lot of important things have happened here over the years.”

Cornyn discussed with Holliman the possibility of obtaining grants to help renovate the structure.

“It would be a shame if both buildings were abandoned and forgotten because it’s an important part of our history,” he remarked.

Both Mineral Wells City Manager Lance Howerton and Industrial Foundation Recording Secretary Steve Butcher said Cornyn’s visit to the locations can benefit the projects, particular with the quest for new market tax credits to help further the Baker Hotel project.

“I think it could be very helpful,” Howerton said. “Whenever the concept of the new market tax credit was first discussed, one of the first things former mayor Holliman did was send letters to our representatives.”

Once the representatives’ aides were contacted, the city manager said they discussed the Baker Hotel project and the role the tax credit would play in helping the project achieve financial success.

“Given the magnitude of the project, given the size of the community, the kind of spotty economic past, this was a tremendously difficult project to put together,” Howerton noted. The city manager explained that by having the support of the legislators working “in concert will hopefully allow us to pull together a project that is financially viable.”

According to the United States Department of Treasury’s Web site, the New Markets Tax Credit program “permits taxpayers to receive a credit against federal income taxes for making qualified equity investments in designated Community Development Entities. Substantially all of the qualified equity investment must in turn be used by the CDE to provide investments in low-income communities.”

“What he [Cornyn] can do and said he’d do is put in a good word for us,” said Butcher. “Hunter Chase has put in an application for the tax credit. If they receive that allocation, it’ll certainly help this project.”

“I think the senator’s visit was an opportunity for him to actually see the Baker Hotel, get a feel for it. He got a better idea of the connection of the Baker to the community,” Howerton said. “I think the visit was very timely and indicative of support for the project in general.”

Prior to leaving for a fundraiser that evening, Cornyn made a few comments about the campaign trail.

“The campaign’s going good,” he said, adding that his wife “is counting the days. These campaigns last too long.”

Asked about his thoughts on who Republican presidential candidate John McCain might choose as his running mate, Cornyn declined to speculate. “It’s going to be interesting.”

He added, “I think it’s very important the election’s about issues, not personalities.

“Sen. McCain is a bona fide hero of Vietnam. He’s an expert in national security matters. Sen. [Barack] Obama, he’s got a lot to commend himself but even he would have to concede his experience is kind of thin.”

Cornyn added he is “hoping McCain will be successful.”