A tour of 200 acres of scrub brush, bold ridges and deep ravines off Fisher Ferry Road by multiple Vicksburg and Warren County officials took place Friday amid details of past shortcomings and future plans for a sports complex there.

Two committees and a recommendation had preceded the tour, postponed since November due to either rainy weather that had made parts of the property too muddy to drive or walk. Cleared of most high grass, the barren grounds behind St. Michael Catholic Church impressed some on the trek.

“It’s the first time I’ve ever been out here and it’s been cut down like this,” North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield said of the grass height. “I’m feeling better about this than I ever have.” Mayfield acknowledged drainage remained a challenge.

The tour was organized by the city to round up more attention and support from the Warren County Board of Supervisors, which named three representatives to a committee to analyze a sports complex concept’s feasibility, financing and marketing options.

Gathered was a massive group of officials — Mayfield, Mayor George Flaggs Jr.,  South Ward Alderman Willis Thompson, city attorney Nancy Thomas, city clerk Walter Osborne, public works chief Garnet Van Norman, city accountant Doug Whittington, Flaggs aide Brian Boykins, Carl Harris of the street department, Board of Supervisors president Bill Lauderdale, District 1 Supervisor John Arnold and county administrator John Smith. Most city officials took their city-issued vehicles, while county officials rode in Smith’s personal SUV to the site. Conversations between the city and county officials during the hourlong visit took place in the last 15 minutes or so. The gathering broke up without scheduling another walk-through or meeting.

In December, Flaggs created the committee and named seven people to a separate committee tasked with analyzing a site and design of a sports complex. Earlier in the month, an ad hoc committee wrapped up six months of public meetings and reviews by recommending a sports complex be built on 270 acres and feature 12 soccer fields, eight youth baseball fields, eight softball fields, an amphitheater and a meeting center. It would replace fields at Halls Ferry Park and soccer fields at Clear Creek in Bovina that officials for years have termed outdated.

Flaggs impressed the concept of tourism and a need to add a walking trail to the plans, in light of recent fee hikes for exercisers and history buffs alike at Vicksburg National Military Park.

“We can put a walking trail in here to help with the tourism there,” Flaggs said.

An early idea on access was to build a road directly off Fisher Ferry, but through church property. Plans by the church to build on the edges of its adjacent property scuttled it early, city attorney Nancy Thomas said.

“We could never coordinate where the easement was going to be, versus what they were going to build,” Thomas said.

County officials were observers for the most part along the deer-tracked, bumpy terrain. Arnold, who favors finding private investment for the complex, stressed a logical next step would be to examine whether the recommended number of fields would fit on the tract and still have room for parking. Regulation base paths in baseball are 90 feet; in softball, they are 60 feet.

“We need to measure how much room it takes to build a softball field, parking for two parents per child, and go from there,” Arnold said.

About $3 million has been spent preparing the Fisher Ferry site, near St. Michael Catholic Church, for adequacy as a sports complex location since the city bought it in 2003. The expenditures run the gamut from land clearing, drainage improvement, flood plain-related engineering, and dirt work.

Last March, the city put the land up for sale for 90 days, but no takers came forward.