On Monday, Lowndes County supervisors at last turned their attention to building a sportsplex on 89 acres of land it purchased in 2018, something that seemed to have been put on the back-burner until now.
Architect Joey Henderson presented plans for six options, ranging in costs from $14 million to about $30 million, depending on the amenities the supervisors want.
One of the biggest ticket items includes a water park that would include a competition-ready pool, a water slide/play area and a “lazy river” feature. The aquatics were not mentioned when the supervisors initially sought to purchase the land. Back then, the idea was to build a sprawling baseball/softball complex.
The plans presented Monday include baseball/softball fields but also water features, multi-purpose fields, a playground, a walking trail and other features that weren’t part of the initial discussion.
The sportsplex concept emerged a year after the county opted out of the joint county/city of Columbus recreation program called the Columbus-Lowndes Recreation Authority in 2017.
At the time, there were fears the split would create a segregated recreation department – county programs for white kids and city programs for black kids.
Today, there is some anecdotal evidence that that fear is well-grounded.
Will a new sportsplex that could cost up to $30 million create separate and unequal recreation? That cannot be ruled out.
But there is another potential negative consequence. Once built, will a county complex featuring anywhere from four to eight state-of-the-art baseball fields drive existing baseball facilities into obscurity?
How many is too many?
During the discussion, there were two options that weren’t entertained but should be, options that would address both of these worst-case scenarios.
The first would be to follow the model provided by area industry. In the board meeting that preceded the sportsplex discussions supervisors approved a free-in-lieu agreement for Phase 5 expansion at Steel Dynamics. How is that relevant to the sportsplex discussion? Here’s how. Steel Dynamics had a long-range plan for its expansion, adding phases incrementally over a period of years.
That seems like a good idea to me.
The county could build baseball fields in Phase 1, then wait to add other features over a period of years. That would allow the county to assess the success of each phase and alter plans based on emerging information.
In five years, the county may have more reliable information on the best use of the property and tailor the additional phases to meet those needs. It may turn out that four or five fields is enough; it may turn out that more baseball fields are needed. In the interim, other great options may emerge that no one has even thought of.
The second idea would be to incorporate the existing — county and city — recreation programs into a single county-wide league, something that would complement those existing programs rather than destroy them.
That would also go a long way in creating truly integrated recreation, one that would ensure that city residents would be able to access the new sportsplex in a meaningful way.
The idea is simple: On Tuesday, Johnny’s game is played at Lake Lowndes. On Friday, his game is at the county sportsplex. The next week, his game is at Propst Park.
That plan would keep all our facilities relevant and do much to prevent segregated sports, which is a legitimate concern.
That would take a coordinated effort between the city and county, of course.
But if the county sportsplex is going to be, indeed, a complex for all county residents, we should be able to demand that cooperation.
The county should be deliberate in its plans for the sportsplex, and those plans should be an enhancement of county recreation rather than an alternative.
And, of course, anything that perpetuates segregated recreation is morally repulsive.
Both of these potential consequences must be addressed.
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected]
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected]
