The Board of Mayor and Aldermen Monday approved three resolutions authorizing the board to sell up to $26 million in general obligation bonds for the proposed sports complex.

“Looks like we’re on our way to getting a sports complex,” Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said.

Tray Hairston with bonding attorneys Butler Snow, said the bond issue, which will be paid off using the city’s special 2 percent sales tax on hotel rentals and restaurant food and beverage sales, will not count against the city’s bonded indebtedness.

The exemption to the city’s bonded indebtedness was part of the special local bill authorizing the city to borrow the money.

The bond money will be used to pay off the lease on the sports complex once it is completed.

Under the agreement between the city and Sports Fields of Canton, Ga., the parent company of The Sports Force, which is building the complex, The Sports Force will lease the city’s property on Fisher Ferry Road from the city, build the facility, and lease it back to the city, which will pay rent to allow the developer to recover its costs for designing and building the complex.

The preliminary design for the complex proposes using 75 acres of the 200-acre site and avoiding any impact from flood-prone areas on the property. Under the plan, the fields could be transformed into 11 youth baseball or softball fields, 18 youth soccer fields or nine full size lacrosse or full-size soccer fields if needed for tournaments.

In other action, the board:

• Received a bid of $768,368 from Fordice Construction to build the Farmers’ Market pavilion at the corner of Washington and Jackson streets. Fordice was the lone bidder for the project, and its bid was $128,368 more than the project’s $640,000 budget.

The bid was taken under advisement, but Flaggs indicated he would not vote to award the bid to Fordice.

“I can tell you up front, I’m not voting for a $700,000 barn like this,” he said. “That’s too much money.”

“Sounds like we’re not going to get a farmers’ market (pavilion), because I’m sure not voting for it,” North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield said.

• The board also took under advisement two bids to replace the splash pad at Catfish Row.

Focus Construction of Ocean Springs was the low bidder with $450,000, while Planet Recess of Baker, Louisiana, bid $536,617.

Planet Recess’ bid was the same bid it submitted in March, when it was the only bidder on the project. That bid was rejected because the company failed to include a copy Louisiana’s out of state bidder law. Mississippi law requires out of state companies bidding on public projects in Mississippi to include a copy of their state’s out of state bidder law.

The 15-year-old splash pad was a popular and well-used attraction for the city, but was shut down last year for almost one month, from June 30 to July 26, while city workers installed rebuilt pumps and filter motors. It was later demolished because of problems with pad’s pipe system.