A Missouri company will advise city officials on the selection and design of a site for a multipurpose sports complex.

The Vicksburg Board of Mayor and Aldermen at a special Friday meeting hired JCI Holdings LLC of Sunrise Beach, Mo., at a cost not to exceed $9,025, including expenses, to help the board find a site for the complex.

Under its agreement with the city, JCI will examine, analyze and evaluate three different properties in the city to determine the feasibility of using one to develop a sports complex and determine what facilities will be needed.

South Ward Alderman Willis Thompson said after the meeting the properties under consideration include the city’s Fisher Ferry property on Fisher Ferry Road, property on Bazinsky Road near Halls Ferry Park and the Mississippi Bluffs property, between the Mississippi River and U.S. 61 South.

Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said the $9,000 in the JCI contract would be the last money the city spends on a sports complex until it gets direction from the Legislature “as to how we can fund this project.”

The board and the Warren County Board of Supervisors in early February approved resolutions seeking local and private bills for a two percent food and beverage and hotel tax levied either in the city or the city and the county, and approval to lease property to a private company to develop the park and lease the land back to the city.

Providing a list showing the present and previous city administrations since 2003 have spent $3.2 million on the Fisher Ferry site, Flaggs said, “We cannot continue to sink into this project.”

“The hold up now in my opinion is the Mississippi Legislature giving us that authority to do something as related to the resolutions passed by the city and the county,” he said. “This thing can’t linger forever. We can’t keep pumping money into the ground.”

He said the current administration has spent $36,212 in Fisher Ferry, most of that for a study on access roads from U.S. 61 South and Dana Road and hiring JCI. “I’m not voting for one cent over $36,212 unless we get approval from the Legislature,” he said.

He said the $9,000 for the consultant “is, I believe, the best investment for the city, because we are (going) beyond political and personal opinion about our sites. We need professional people to come in to advise us from here forward. I think it makes sense for us to make this investment today. So we can know what we can do and cannot do. We’re trying to get closure, where we can know professionally from the experts what will work and what will not work.

He and Thompson have supported the Fisher Ferry property as a potential site for the complex, and building an access road to the property from either U.S. 61 South or Dana Road, which is north of the site. According a recent study by Stantec, the county’s engineering firm of record, which was hired by the city to look at both alternatives, the Dana Road access plan project would cost $1.8 million.

Since its purchase in 2003, the Fisher Ferry property has been plagued by problems, including a lack of a site plan and wetlands permits before site development began that eventually led to the previous Board of Mayor and Aldermen writing it off as a potential site. Site work began in January 2009 only to be slowed and halted by delays for wetlands permits, redeveloping plans to avoid wetlands areas along Hatcher Bayou, which runs along the property’s northern boundary and has a history of flooding.

The wetlands problems, coupled with access to the property and the diversion in 2009 of money from a 2007 bond issue from the park to the Washington Street bridge project, eventually forced city officials to end the project.

“We can’t spend the rest of this administration talking sports complex,” Flaggs said. “We have other capital improvements needs. We’ve got to bring closure.”

Thompson said the agreement includes a feasibility study on each proposed site.

“I think it helps us and better helps us manage taxpayer dollars by being responsible,” he said. “I think it’s a good investment. We may spend a little piece at a time, but we’ll get what we need to make the best decision going forward.”

JCI Holdings is a subsidiary of Jason/Christopher International-Diamonte Global, a multinational consulting firm based in Tucson, Ariz.,specializing in various stages of planning and developing recreation and resort development said Jon Moore, JCI’s senior partner. He said the company has eight employees.

Its website features a resume of projects in the United States, Canada, Mexico and South America. Among the U.S. projects are Hidden Rivers, a resort complex at Gulf Shores, Ala.; Ponchartrain Shores resort at Metairie, La.; Texas X-Park, an X games recreation park at Leander, Texas; and Vicksburg Landing, a plan developed in 2014 for a 540-acre park in Vicksburg dubbed Mississippi Bluffs, which is under consideration as a site for the proposed sports complex.

Moore said the plan was prepared for Fortress Investment Group, which previously owned the Mississippi Bluffs property, as part of a study to determine the best use for the property.

Fortress inherited the site, along Warrenton Road, from developers of a casino-and-golf course combo proposed more than a decade ago but left unfinished.

Jeff Burk, Fortress chief executive officer, said the property was sold at the end of 2014. He would not give the name of the new owner, citing a confidentiality clause in the sales agreement.

He said Vicksburg Landing was developed in connection with former Mayor Paul Winfield’s plans for sports complex in 2012.

“We looked at a real fascinating project for the city,” he said. “The timing was bad for both of us. We were ready to do it, the city’s bond rating wasn’t.”

Moody’s Investment Services, a New York-based provider of credit ratings and risk analysis in February 2012 pulled the city’s A-1 bond rating, “because it (Moody’s) believes it has insufficient or otherwise inadequate information to support the maintenance of the rating,” according to information released when the company pulled the ratings. The city received an A2 rating June 30.

“When the bond rating wasn’t there, we really couldn’t get the synergy at the state level,” he said. “Even if we got the bonds, we didn’t know who was going to buy them because the rating was so bad.”

The city’s ad hoc committee on recreation in its Dec. 15 report to the city recommended a multipurpose sports complex on 270 acres of land that included baseball and softball fields, 15 soccer fields, 10 tennis courts, basketball and volleyball courts and a multipurpose building with indoor pool.

Flaggs appointed a site and design committee and a feasibility, finance and marketing committee for the project. He and Thompson have supported the Fisher Ferry property as a potential site for the complex, and building an access road to the property from either U.S. 61 South or Dana Road, which is north of the site. According a recent study by Stantec, the county’s engineering firm of record which was hired by the city to look at both alternatives, the Dana Road access plan project would cost $1.8 million.

Since its purchase in 2003, the Fisher Ferry property has been plagued by problems, including a lack of a site plan and wetlands permits before site development began that eventually led to the previous Board of Mayor and Aldermen writing it off as a potential site. Site work began in January 2009 only to be slowed and halted by delays for wetlands permits, redeveloping plans to avoid wetlands areas along Hatcher Bayou, which runs along the property’s northern boundary and has a history of flooding.

The wetlands problems, coupled with access to the property and the diversion in 2009 of money from a 2007 bond issue from the park to the Washington Street bridge project, eventually forced city officials to end the project.