Interest in a multipurpose recreation complex for the City of Vicksburg remains high despite the poor attendance at public meetings held recently by the city’s ad hoc recreation committee, committee members learned Monday.

The committee held public meetings at Warren Central High School on Aug. 28, and Sept. 4 and Thursday. The Aug. 28 meeting had the highest attendance with 35 people. The Sept. 4 meeting had 24, and 13 people attended Thursday’s meeting.

But members said the low turnouts were not indicative of the community’s interest in recreation and the development of a multipurpose complex, citing the response to the committee’s Facebook page and a petition on change.org, which the committee acknowledged it helped create. The petition encouraged support for the idea. Committee members opened the website and Facebook page about two weeks ago. The committee has been circulating a petition to gauge public interest in a multipurpose recreation complex at school programs and events since August.

The Facebook page has 365 likes, while the petition site, titled, “River Bluff Park at Vicksburg,” had 266 signatures as of Monday.

“The word is out and people are aware of it,” said committee member Alonzo Stevens. “It’s just hard (to attend hearings) unless it’s something drastic. I talk to 10 or 12 people a day, and all are interested in it and want to do it, but physically, they just don’t want to participate (attend meetings).

“I think the public is well aware of what’s going on,” he said, adding the Facebook page and the website are getting the people’s attention. “I think we’ll get enough signatures on the petition. People don’t want to be kept in the dark, and I don’t think they can say that (about the committee’s efforts).” Besides the petition drive and hitting social media, committee chairman Omar Nelson has spoken to local civic organizations about recreation, addressing the Vicksburg Lions Club, Vicksburg-Warren Chamber of Commerce, the Warren County Chapter of the NAACP and is scheduled to meet with other groups.

The committee expects to meet Oct. 20 with local church pastors to talk about recreation and the complex.

“They have a captive audience every Wednesday and Sunday,” committee member Vickie Bailey said.

Nelson said some pastors have already mentioned the complex to their congregations during services.

“The expectation (for a complex) is high,” Bailey said. “They want to see it happen. We need to move aggressively.”

In other action, the committee:

• Discussed assessments of the city’s neighborhood parks. Nelson reminded the members that each member was given a list of parks to evaluate for the committee’s report in December.

• Discussed plans for site visits to Ridgeland and Flowood.

The committee was appointed in May by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to examine the city’s recreation programs and present recommendations to improve the overall program over the next five years by Dec. 31.

The committee first met on June 5, and began discussions that indicated a move toward a multipurpose recreation complex, marking the third time a recreation complex for the city has been discussed.

In 2003, the city bought the 200-acre Fisher Ferry Road property near St. Michael Catholic Church for a sports complex for $325,000. The project was abandoned in 2009 after an additional $2.7 million had been spent for preliminary plans, engineering and dirt work. The city has spent $55,343 since August 2012 to replace the concrete in the drainage chutes on the site with riprap and grout under a Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality mandate.

The board in March put the property up for sale for a 90-day period, but there was no response.

Efforts to remake Halls Ferry Park into a $25 million sportsplex fell apart when the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality frowned on the project’s suitability because, as known throughout the process, part of the park was built on what was once the city’s landfill. Separate pieces of land in south Warren County totaling 145 acres owned by the Aquila Group, which had proposed to build and manage the fields and sports facilities, went to tax sale Aug. 26.

In 2007, the city board hired USA Partners Sports Alliance of Jacksonville, Fla., for $250,000 to determine the feasibility of a proposed $25 million sports complex at Halls Ferry Park, including Bazinsky Field.

Under an agreement between the city and USA Partners, which was hired after the Aquila Group approached the city, the company would return the $250,000 feasibility study cost to the city if the complex did not materialize. The city sued USA when the company did not return the money, and received a judgment against the company.

As of Sept. 11, more than five years later, the city has received $8,909 from the company and is trying to collect more, City Attorney Nancy Thomas said.

Former mayor Paul Winfield in 2012 promoted an estimated $20 million sports complex funded by a half-cent sales tax. Flaggs, who was a state legislator at the time and had a hand in bringing a potential tax increase to a vote, opposed the project because there were too many uncertainties with the project. The project died when the chairman of the House Local and Private Committee refused to introduce the bill.