The team at Sabre South recently attended the Grand Opening of The Village Main in San Marcos, home to four nonprofit agencies that will serve more than 30,000 residents in Hays and surrounding rural counties. The completion of the $4 million, 22,000-square-foot Village Main building is the realization of a long-held vision to create a centralized social services campus that serves the region’s working poor, seniors, victims of violence, and the disabled.

“The Sabre construction team accepted the challenge and worked diligently to build this magnificent space,” said Kathy Morris, former San Marcos mayor and social worker, who was the lead fundraiser for this project for The Village of San Marcos. “Thanks to superintendent Jason Lawder, who every day, at every hour, in sickness and in health, has a penchant for detail and completion. He worked along with Jon Barton, Greg Dorman, Kenneth Dominguez, the subs, and the rest of us who came in and interfered. You all kept us moving forward to get to this point, a timely completion and an excellent product.”

The Village of San Marcos, the owner and developing arm of the project, first conceived of a non-profit campus in 2004 after receiving 19 donated acres at the site, a gift from Morris and her husband. Years later, the developer acquired 10 more acres through a Block Grant. The plans for The Village Main campus were drawn up in 2010 with fundraising started in 2015, envisioning this as a home to four well-established social service agencies:

• Community Action of Central Texas  promotes self-sufficiency and wellness to end poverty in our region, with four areas of operation: Health Services; Early Childhood Education; Adult Literacy; and their Community Services division, which offers fiscal assistance and runs the San Marcos Senior Citizens Center.
• Hays County ECI/Homespun is part of a statewide program for families with children, birth to age three, with disabilities and developmental delays.
• The Family Justice Center provides coordinated services in one location to victims of domestic violence and violent crime, partnering with a multidisciplinary team of local police officers, prosecutors, legal service providers and community advocates.
• Women, Infants & Children (WIC) provides a special supplemental nutrition program for to improve the diet of infants, children, and pregnant women who are at risk for nutrition-related illness.

The ultimate purpose of the entire 29-acre Village Campus is to serve as a central location for social service organizations and government entities in Hays County, enabling coordination between agencies and providing more easily accessible, comprehensive services to the people who need them most. The Village Main is the culmination of the second phase of the project. The first phase, already completed, is home to the CFPO-PALS Youth Sports field. Phase Three of the campus is slated for the future construction of a new Hays County Food Bank and regional distribution center.

The Village Main, along with the campus itself, is an attractive addition to the neighborhood and designed with the comfort of employees and potential clients in mind. It was rewarding and exciting for the Sabre team to complete this essential piece of the social services campus, helping to make this long-awaited dream a reality for San Marcos and Hays County.