The city’s ad hoc recreation committee isn’t expected to make its report on the city’s recreation facilities until the end of December, but South Ward Alderman Willis Thompson said members of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen are weighing the possibilities of expanding Vicksburg’s recreation assets.

“We are looking at options for a sports complex,” he told members of the Vicksburg Optimist Club Wednesday. “That’s one of the things that’s needed in the community. I’m excited about it. I think it’s going to happen. It’s just putting the right pieces in place to make sure we do it right the first time.”

And the city’s 200-acre tract on Fisher Ferry that was bought in 2003 for a sports complex could be the right location, he said.

“Fisher Ferry is one of the options we’re looking at,” Thompson said. “We’ve had some sessions about it recently. We haven’t ruled it out.”

The city bought the Fisher Ferry property in 2003 for $235,000 to build a recreation complex called “Champion Hill,” according to a project file in the city clerk’s office. The project was abandoned in 2009 after the city spent $2.7 million for planning and groundwork. One objection was part of the property was in a flood zone because Hatcher Bayou runs along the site’s northern boundary with Hamilton Heights Subdivision. Another was lack of proper access to and exit from the property.

“We’ve put a lot of money into it,” Thompson said. “It would be wrong not to consider it. At least let’s put the ‘dollars’ to it and see what we can accomplish. I sure haven’t ruled it out, and the board feels the same way.”

He said the board plans to look at the feasibility of building an access road from the property west to U.S. 61 South,

“You can get to extreme north or extreme south Vicksburg in 15 minutes,” he said. “I don’t think it (the site’s distance from downtown) is a deal-breaker. I think with proper signage and marketing, I don’t think it will be a deterrent by location. I think it could work.”

After the board receives the committee’s report, he said, it will begin looking at land and financing options, adding committees will be appointed to examine those issues.

“We’re going to spend money … so we need to have to something that fits, but at the same time be conservative and make good decisions with it and make sure once we start it we can finish it,” he said.

“We’re looking at several options to see what the public is willing to spend. If you want something you don’t have now, you have to be willing to do something different (to get it).”

The sports complex was one of several issues addressed by Thompson, who also discussed increasing neighborhood recreation programs, the city’s summer jobs program and getting involved in improving education.

“We need to improve the quality of life for youth in the city,” he said, adding he is working on project to add to the city’s 25 neighborhood parks, including using the vacant lots in Hamilton Heights, which were the result of flood buyout programs by the city in the 1980s and ’90s.

“That’s an example of where you can have something (where) you can’t build on or develop to do something nice,” he said.

He said he would like to bring soccer to the neighborhood parks and introduce children to an activity in which they can participate. He compared the potential of soccer’s growth in the city to tennis, which has become a booming sport in the city, adding the city is expanding the tennis facilities at Halls Ferry Park under a Mississippi Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks grant.

Having a good recreation program, Thompson said, means a lot to him because “growing up, I think we kind of missed out on opportunities because maybe transportation or finance, or a combination, or living in an area where none of those things were available.”

Discussing the summer jobs program, he said the city’s program gave students an opportunity to be able to work and get experience in different career fields. He said the city’s summer internship program for college students gave them the opportunity to get experience in their fields of interest.

“When you’re out there going to school, you’re given the education, but when you get out, you don’t have the experience,” he said, “We found that (the internships) as a way to give our students a way not only to learn, but to gain experience in the workplace.”

He added the programs may also help develop future employees for the city.

“The jobs program hit close to home with me, because one of the big things for me (as a teenager) was to have a job, having the responsibility, learning to earn your own money and at the same time learn a skill and learning how to work with people,” he said.

He urged the members to volunteer in the school system, adding that city government can only go so far in helping schools.

“We volunteer through United Way to read to third-graders and impressing the importance of reading,” he said. “If you can read, you can do almost anything.”