STARKVILLE — After more than three years since its groundbreaking, Cornerstone Park is almost ready to officially “play ball.”
On Thursday, Mayor Lynn Spruill said the city’s long-awaited ribbon cutting for the park has been set for at 11 a.m. Oct. 13. She told The Dispatch the park will help the city to “step up” its game when it comes to recreation.
“The intent of this is to have a place that our residents and our citizens are proud of,” Spruill said. “… They can point to this facility as somewhere they are happy their children or their grandchildren are playing ball in the (recreational) leagues, and they are happy to point to it as a facility they can be proud of when we have out of town visitors come in.”
The $20-million-plus sports complex, located on Highway 25, is a baseball and softball-focused recreation facility containing three “quads” of 12 fields, a pavilion, concessions facilities and more. It will also contain a commemorative statue of Starkville native James “Cool Papa” Bell, which will be unveiled during the ribbon cutting, Spruill said.
While the park has been under construction since ground was broken in August 2020, with tentative plans to open in summer 2022, the opening date was repeatedly pushed back due to COVID-19, supply chain issues and other delays.
The city is using $22 million in bonds to fund the project. Those bonds will be repaid with collections from a special 1% tourism sales tax voters approved shortly before work began.
This year, the park started hosting tournaments following a soft opening in late May. Spruill said the smaller tournaments helped to work out issues for when the park becomes fully operational.
“We’ve never done anything on this order of magnitude, and there were a few little things that we were working our way through, and that was part of the reason we had those smaller tournaments so we could see where the gaps were,” Spruill said. “And I think that was very useful to us.”
In August, some fields were made available for limited travel team practices, though one quad remains closed for construction, according to the Starkville Parks and Recreation Department Facebook page. But on Sept. 8, the department announced the park would be closed the rest of this week to stripe the asphalt.
Spruill said the park is now in the “last throes” of construction with finishing touches like striping asphalt, replanting trees, planting sod and putting in irrigation.
But Brandon Doherty, general manager for city parks and recreation, said the majority of construction should be completed by the ribbon cutting, with only minor changes and additions to follow.
“Like most construction projects, there’s always going to be a punch list, but that will be fairly minor compared to everything else,” Doherty said.
Doherty said the department has been taking reservations for the tournaments and practices and will continue to do so even once the park is opened, but with more fields to offer. Spruill said reservations will help with managing and maintaining the fields.
Doherty said those who want to use the fields can call the sports office to book a field at (662) 323-2294. Cornerstone’s walking trail and playground will also be open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. with no reservations required.
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