Supervisors are unlikely to pursue an offer for the Oktibbeha County Lake-based Starkville Wet N Wild waterpark until the lake’s structural integrity is shored up, District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer said Monday.
Trainer’s comments come after Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood’s office sent an opinion last month stating the county may operate the waterpark — which includes KOA Campground spaces and rental cabins — as a public facility and spend any revenue generated from usage fees and concession sales to cover operational costs or a future transaction’s debt relief.
Supervisors were broached with a $2 million interest-gauging offer for the business early last year by owner and former Mississippi State University basketball coach Rick Stansbury.
The board entertained conducting a cost-benefit analysis for waterpark’s potential purchase and a review of revenue and expenditures associated with operating the business as a public recreational facility, but supervisors have not taken any further action or held discussions on the matter.
About the same time Stansbury approached Trainer with his offer, the county was forced to lower the lake’s water levels and begin a process bidding out repairs after slope failures and other structural issues with the manmade lake became apparent.
The lake’s lowered level forced the waterpark to close indefinitely.
“Right now, we have a responsibility to that levy. We’re in between a rock and a hard place. We’ve come this far (with repairs), but doing anything further will require additional dollars,” Trainer said. “We may sit tight and negotiate if it becomes an option; however, unless someone comes up with a big windfall, it’s highly unlikely … we can make something work.”
How to proceed with Stansbury’s offer split supervisors since it became public. While District 3 Supervisor Marvell Howard, who lives near the lake and represents that area of Oktibbeha County, and Trainer previously indicated they would support a financially feasible deal to provide residents access to what could become the first county-maintained park, both District 1 Supervisor John Montgomery and District 4 Supervisor Bricklee Miller questioned whether government should invest public funds into a business.
“Private philanthropy played a vital role in expanding opportunities at the county lake for the citizens of Oktibbeha County, and everyone is extremely grateful for vision to enhance (the area),” Miller said Monday. “It is my belief this concept should expand under the strong leadership of another private investor that can allocate capital with expectations of a future financial return.”
Lake improvements
In July, Camady Contracting submitted a $693,324 low to address 800 feet of slope repairs at the lake. County Administrator Emily Garrard confirmed Monday the total cost was pushed to about $775,000 after engineering fees were attached.
The county has spent about $635,000 on the project, she said, and is expecting an almost-85 percent reimbursement on the total cost from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resource Conservation Service.
Those repairs do not address all of the remaining structural issues, as County Engineer Clyde Pritchard previously forecast a $5 million price tag to fully shore up the lake.
Rapid drawdowns — when the lake’s water level rises and falls in a short amount of time — led to the slope failures along County Lake Road, he said last year, and the county still faces issues with seepage and the lake’s slide gate and emergency spillway.
Roughly 400 acres of combined 16th section and county properties comprising Oktibbeha County Lake and Starkville Wet N Wild are under Stansbury’s control through two leases.
Stansbury is also seeking a rebate for the almost $32,000 he pays annually for the 16th section lease, since the document contains a formula lowering the lease requirements for each day beyond a month the water level falls below 8 feet from the top of the drain.
Mike Ainsworth, Oktibbeha County’s 16th section land manager, calculated a $21,816.95 fair market value for the Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District’s land Monday, using 221 days below the 8-foot mark.
Trainer said he has not spoken to Stansbury, who now coaches Western Kentucky University, about the potential lake deal since last fall.
Calls to Howard and Pritchard went unreturned Monday.
AG opinion
Penned by Special Assistant Attorney General Avery Mounger Lee, the AG’s letter does not specifically opine on the validity of a possible transaction for the waterpark.
It does, however, state the county can operate the venture and use its proceeds for public use if supervisors make “a factual determination, spread upon the minutes, that it is a ‘recreational park,'” as defined by Miss. Code. Ann. 55-9-1, after a transaction occurs.
That statute and others, including Miss. Code Ann. 17-1-3, allow governing bodies to expend public money, possibly through bonds, to create recreational parks or to acquire them, whether through leases, purchases or other methods.
If issued, bonds to establish such a public park “may be retired in whole or in part by the proceeds … earned by such recreational facilities or parks,” statute states.
State code also states rules and regulations governing the park’s usage and any associated fees must be reasonable, set “in the interests of protecting the public safety and welfare, and applied uniformly to all citizens wishing to use the public park.”
Carl Smith covers Starkville and Oktibbeha County for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter @StarkDispatch
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