After years of delay, the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 Monday to proceed with an approximately $12 million bid to start construction at the sports complex west of the Tombigbee River.
The supervisors began kicking around ideas for a sportsplex back in 2018. Planning languished during the COVID-19 pandemic, but in 2021 architect firm JBHM produced several draft plans that ranged from $14 million to about $29 million.
Earlier this year, the supervisors asked for bids on a package that included eight baseball/softball fields, a multipurpose building and playground, an entry gate and picnic tables and other furnishings. Those bids came in last week, and Joey Henderson of JBHM said Monday morning that Columbus-based West Brothers Construction submitted the low bid of $12,360,407, which supervisors approved. The other bidder, Ridgeland-based Codaray Construction, bid $13,519,100.
The project would take about 17 months to complete, Henderson said. The project bids also came in under the original $16 million estimate.
District 1 Supervisor Harry Sanders moved to approve the project, with a second from District 3 John Holliman. District 4 Supervisor Jeff Smith and District 5 Supervisor Leroy Brooks pushed back immediately.
Ultimately, board president and District 2 Supervisor Trip Hairston joined with Sanders and Holliman to form the majority vote.
Smith urged the board to consider adding some features, for the sake of having diverse programming.
“What I see in this plan is ballfields and that’s it,” Smith said. “… We all want this to be something we can be proud of, but it doesn’t meet the total needs of Lowndes County. Columbus is talking about (Propst Park) and all the amenities that will be offered. When do we move the needle, guys?”
A Lowndes County sports complex needs to compete regionally, he said, referencing the $20-million-plus Cornerstone Park complex under construction in Starkville.
“This plan is not meeting all the needs of this community, and it is not showing that we can compete with the quality of life the way that our neighbors are,” he said.
Smith suggested adding a multipurpose building and features similar to what is at the Travis Outlaw Center in Starkville to give the park “diversity.”
“We could have an indoor space with badminton, with space for aerobics, with a basketball court,” he said. “In the original plans there was a spray park, and I think that would draw people to the park from all over. They’re built all over Tupelo’s parks.
“I’m not opposed to building the park,” he added. “But for the money we’re spending, and with the money we have left over, we have the flexibility to go back and make revisions.”
Sanders suggested approving the bid and then pursuing a separate process to add more features.
“We’ve got good weather coming up (for construction),” Sanders said. “We don’t need to delay any further. … You’re talking about another year of delay (for design and bids). You can always add.”
Brooks said he had a “gut feeling this is not the right thing to do.”
“We’ve never talked about what recreation should be in this community,” Brooks said. “We’ve got Columbus talking about a massive renovation at Propst Park, got Caledonia with their own program. … We’re just going in different directions and losing people in our community. This community can’t afford two Rolls Royces. We can’t afford in some cases two Volkswagens.”
Brooks said he thinks recreation is becoming racially segregated, and the new sports complex will only make that problem worse.
“I’ve said from the very beginning there was the possibility of creating segregated recreation facilities,” he said. “That’s going to do more damage for the community. That’s my feeling, and because of that I will not vote to support this project.”
Hairston compared the plans to where the soccer complex started years ago.
“The soccer complex is a destination; people come from all over,” he said. “At some point we will have that destination. If you look at the soccer complex, we added things over the years so that it just wasn’t for soccer.”
Brooks also pushed his fellow board members on how the project would be paid for.
“There has been no discussion about how to pay for this,” Brooks said. “Once the baby is born, you’ve got to take care of the child. And the question is do we really need it? We got all these fields and only 800 or 900 kids playing ball.”
Hairston told the Dispatch after the meeting that the county “was looking at many options” but “…my initial thought is we would look at a bond issue and pay it back over 15 years.”
Some of the proceeds from the hospital trust money may go to service some of that debt, Hairston said.
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