Two committees of city officials will determine the feasibility, location, design and finance plan for a proposed multipurpose recreation complex.

In a Dec. 23 memo sent to Aldermen Michael Mayfield and Willis Thompson and other city officials, Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said he was appointing the committees to look at the issues involving the proposed complex recommended by the city’s ad hoc recreation committee.

Flaggs named seven people to a site and design committee to determine a location and design for the park, Mayfield, Thompson, Human Resources Director Walterine Langford, Public Works Director Garnet Van Norman, City Clerk Walter Osborne, recreation director Joe Graves and Finance Director Doug Whittington.  Mayfield and Thompson  will co-chair the group. Flaggs will chair a committee of City Attorney Nancy Thomas, Osborne and Whittington to study the feasibility, financing and marketing of the complex.

“I had wanted to go outside (in the community) and appoint committees, but Willis suggested that we try in-house first.” Flaggs said. He added the board would meet with the Warren County Board of Supervisors about the sports complex Jan. 12.

He said the site and design committee would examine what the recreation committee proposed “and come up with a site within 45 days. When they do that, I’m

going to be in the process to see if we can feasibly afford whatever they come up with.

“I’m going to be responsible for the financial arrangements and marketing it to the people,” he said.

“All site designs and financial options will be presented to the public before we finalize everything,” he said. “I have every reason to make certain with this sports complex that the public will be educated on it. We will have complete transparency on this plan.

“I’m absolutely confident the people want a sports complex, and they’re going to get it, but we’re going to have to educate and we’re going to have to be transparent on every decision we make. It’s going to be our complex, not the city’s complex.”

Flaggs said he put Mayfield and Thompson on the site committee because Mayfield had experience with site selection from former Mayor Paul Winfield’s attempt to get a sports complex in 2012, and Thompson had questions about the park design the recreation committee provided with its recommendation.

He added the city’s Fisher Ferry property would be one of the sites considered. “I think everything is in the mix,” he added.

Mayfield said he looked at three pieces of property in 2012, adding he and Winfield also looked at some property together, but would not give locations, adding, “I have personally kept low (discussing property) because I don’t want people offering property that does not fit the city’s needs.” He said he talked recently with one person who contacted him about a potential site, but would not name the individual. He expects to begin looking at potential sites with Thompson this week. Attempts to contact Thompson about the complex were unsuccessful.

“My main objective in this is to save money on front end,” Mayfield said. “If you have to go and remove a lot of dirt and bring dirt in, then it’s going to cost you a whole lot of money on the front end.”

And if the Fisher Ferry site proves unfeasible, he said, “then we want to make sure that when we step off into this again, we have the best topo (topography) we can find in this city, and probably on the verge (boundary) of the city and county.”

Right now, he said, “I don’t see very much that jumps out at me right here in the boundaries of the city, so we’re probably going to end up on the outskirts, but we haven’t nailed that down yet.”

Once the site, design and financing are completed, Flaggs said, he plans to start marketing the project, adding he’s already begun the process by mailing more than 100 copies of the complex design presented by the recreation committee to the supervisors, schools, and some legislators.

“I plan to put one in the courthouse and in the mall, once we get a final design, and I plan on doing some polling. Both countywide and in the city,” he said.

Mayfield said he is confident the county will join the city in the project, adding he has talked to “a couple of the supervisors, and they’ve been somewhat enthusiastic about it. They’re concerned, like I am, about what it’s going to cost.”

Cost also seems to be a major concern among the residents he’s spoken with.

“They want the complex, but at the same time, with about 90 percent of those people, the No. 1 question is ‘what is it going to cost us,’” he said.

Remembering the problems from the 2012 sports complex controversy, he added, “We need to nail this down before we get gung ho; make sure the people understand. We’ve got a lot of things coming down the pipeline on this, and we have to make sure we’re up front and center with everything we do, so it won’t catch us on the other end.”

The city’s ad hoc recreation committee recommended a sports complex covering 270 acres of land when it delivered its report at a Dec. 15 public meeting attended by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen and city and county residents.

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. 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.