At least two members of the Board of Mayor and Alderman say they’re ready to move ahead with developing the city’s Fisher Ferry property as a sports complex, but one member isn’t willing yet to get on board and support the site.

South Ward Alderman Willis Thompson said he wants a second opinion on the feasibility of the property off Fisher Ferry Road the city has owned since 2003 and spent $2.7 million on site preparation and permits.

Fisher Ferry has been seen by Mayor George Flaggs Jr. as the prime location for the sports complex. North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield supports using the property because there are no other sites that can be developed without extensive dirt work.

“Am I settled on it completely? No,” Thompson said after the board Wednesday approved a $50,000 contract with The Sports Force of Canton, Ga., to do a feasibility study for a sports complex, based on using Halls Ferry Park and Fisher Ferry. “ I’m not going to completely rule it out, but I’m also open to other sites.”

He said The Sports Force study will “look at the sites we already have, Halls Ferry and Fisher Ferry, and do an analysis on them,” he said. “It may be they have a way to improve Halls Ferry Park, or they might say Fisher Ferry is a good location, or they might say that it’s not. It gives us an opportunity to get a second opinion on it.

“If they say, ‘We don’t recommend it,’ we don’t need to do it.”

But until the city gets the consultant’s report, Thompson said, he wants to keep his options open, adding he has looked at some sites he believed were good locations for a complex.

“I do want to do it the right way and at the right location if we can continue it,” he said.

If Fisher Ferry is feasible, he said, he will work to get state money to cover the cost of a connecting road from the property to U.S. 61 South. Mayfield has estimated the cost of building the road at $3 million.

“We are not going to build a sports complex during this term,” Thompson said. “That will be done by the next administration. My goal now is to get all the information and data necessary for the next administration, no matter who it is, so they’ll have something to start with. I’d very much like to see it happen. I just want it done right at the best location.

“I think what we get back from the studies are going to give us a good bearing on what we need to do.”

“From what I see right now, unless we can find a piece of property that’s going to cost much less than what it is to prepare (Fisher Ferry), I don’t see any other hang up,” Mayfield said. “My eyes are still open, but from where I stand now and what I see, we have no choice. If it’s (another site) out there, I want someone to show it to me, because I’ve looked.”

Thompson said Sports Force representatives will be collecting data on the area and doing studies to see what sports opportunities are available for the city.

“I think this is needed, whether we move further or not,” he said. “It’s going to be important to the master plan for recreation for the city. I do believe that we have established a funding mechanism, a 2 percent (sales) tax (on food and beverages and hotel rooms) that has to be approved. I think we need it for recreation, whether we build a sports complex or not.”

He said the city’s present recreation program has deficiencies and aging facilities, “And we just don’t have enough facilities to accommodate the opportunities that are out there. We’re constantly meeting with people who want to bring tournaments and different things here, and we just don’t have the facilities to accommodate.

“This will help us out with that plan as well in developing this study.”

Flaggs in May 2014 appointed an ad hoc committee on recreation to examine the city’s recreation facilities and programs that solicited and heard public comments about the need for a multipurpose recreation complex and what it should include.

When the committee released its report in December 2014, it recommended the city build a multipurpose recreation complex featuring baseball and softball fields, basketball, tennis and volleyball courts and a multipurpose building with an indoor pool on a 270-acre tract.

Diamante Global in April 2015 recommended the Fisher Ferry site for the proposed complex, and on April 20, 2015, Gov. Phil Bryant signed a bill authorizing the city to levy a 2 percent food and beverage and hotel tax with the approval of the voters to finance the project.