A new multipurpose recreation complex for Vicksburg could cost from between $20 million and $40 million, the chairman of the city’s ad hoc committee on recreation speculated.

“That’s really a hypothetical number,” committee chairman Omar Nelson said after Monday’s committee meeting, adding he based the numbers on the estimated $20 million cost for a sports complex proposed by former Mayor Paul Winfield 2012, and the estimated $40 million cost of the complex at Southaven, which is considered by some committee members as a mecca of sports complexes in North Mississippi.

Nelson’s comments were the first time an estimate has been given for the latest sports complex proposal for the city. The committee has discussed a possible complex with baseball, softball and soccer fields, tennis courts and walking tracks at meetings and during three public hearings on recreation in August and September.

Members have also indicated such a facility should be on about 200 acres of land. A multipurpose recreation complex is expected to be among the recommendations when the committee submits its report to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen in December.

Nelson said the cost estimate was what he believed it would take to develop a multipurpose facility.

“But that will depend on the board and what they decided to do,” he said, adding the board could decide to accept all or part of the recommendations in the committee’s report.

The committee is beginning to wind down its research efforts, planning meetings with church pastors, business and civic leaders and possible site visits to Clinton and Ridgeland Sunday to examine those facilities and meet with recreation directors.

Nelson said Monday the committee would meet Oct. 20 with the Warren County Ministerial Alliance.

“We’re going to meet with the pastors to explain our plans and get their input on recreation,” he said.

“A lot of the pastors I’ve talked to have expressed some of the same concerns that we’ve heard before, and that is we need something better in Vicksburg. They think we’re behind the times in Vicksburg,” he said.

“The whole thing is about trying to get the word out,” Nelson said. “The ministers have a large audience. A lot of people have told us we need something better. We have the people here that will support this.”

He called the speculated $20 million to $40 million project cost “a big investment for any community.

“If we have people who were objecting about that, you can’t really blame them for that reason,” he said. “You want your government to spend your money wisely, and we have an obligation to do our study with due diligence so that we make our recommendations, these recommendations are actually coming from all the opinions we have received.

“We have to convince the public that investing in a sports complex that size is worth the investment, because it will pay off in the long run,” he said. “It’s an investment communities all over the country have done and they have not looked back. There is a big advantage to drawing people to Vicksburg. Vicksburg has a lot to offer.”

Committee member Hugh Gene said the community supports the idea of a complex. “Everyone I’ve talked to … they’re on board,” he said. “They are signing the petition and the people I’ve been around are all for it.”

Wade Hammack, another committee member, agreed the community supports the park, but added the city needs to make sure city and county officials will also be on board when the time comes to reach a decision to go ahead with the project.

“We need to keep the enthusiasm going,” committee member Linda Fondren said.

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 the 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.