A telephone poll conducted earlier this month by a Jackson-based consulting group indicates a majority of Vicksburg residents still favor a sports complex for the city on city property, but are hesitant about voting for a 2 percent restaurant and bed tax to pay for it.

The poll conducted Oct. 6 by Hayes Dent Strategies, which talked to 1,740 residents, indicated 64 percent of the people contacted believe a sports complex will improve the quality of life in Vicksburg and should be built on the city’s Fisher Ferry Road property or on other land owned by the city. However, 49 percent of the respondents said they would vote for the proposed 2 percent restaurant and hotel tax to fund it.

A majority also said they would not vote for a bond issue to build it.

Flaggs said the poll gives what he called “a snapshot in terms of where we are with the sports complex. In terms of the mindset of the public, the attitude of the public toward a sports complex and I think that’s real good. I think that it’s very evident they want it on Fisher Ferry or some land that the city owns. They don’t want us to buy land.”

South Ward Alderman Willis Thompson has supported using the 200-acre Fisher Ferry site, which the city bought for a sports complex in 2003 for $325,000 and abandoned the project later that year after spending $2.7 million on dirt work.

Thompson Sept. 28 released a copy of an interoffice memo to Flaggs and North Ward Alderman Michael Mayfield recommending a three-phase plan that incorporates the Fisher Ferry property in either Phase 2 or 3.

Flaggs said he was disappointed with the response on the 2 percent tax adding it was not as favorable as he wanted, but called the 49 percent response for the tax a good base “on a flat, straight up question.”

Under state law, 60 percent of the people voting in the election must approve the tax to allow the city to levee it on food and beverage sales and hotel room rentals in the city.

“When we give economic value to it (in another poll later in the year), I believe it will get up to where we’re going, and it’s about 50-50 whether they want us to borrow money to build the sports complex,” he said.

The poll included seven questions put to residents in the city.

Besides the questions on the sports complex and financing, people were asked if they would use public transportation to go to the sports complex, whether they thought Vicksburg was headed in the right direction, and if they were a registered voter in the city.

On the question of public transportation, 29 percent said they would use the city’s NRoute bus system to get to the park.

A total of 32 percent said the city was moving in the right direction, with 36 percent saying no and 32 percent undecided, while 79 percent said they were registered voters in the city.

“To me this was a pretty good basis for starting the education process on the sports complex,” Flaggs said, adding the programs on the sports complex will begin after the second Hayes Dent Strategies. He said work will begin soon on the design for the first phase of the sport complex project.

Work on a sports complex for the city began in May 2014 when Flaggs appointed a committee to examine the city’s recreation program and the need for a sports complex for the city.

The committee in December released a report recommending a multipurpose recreation complex on 270 acres of land featuring baseball and softball fields, soccer fields, tennis and basketball courts, walking trail and a multipurpose building with an indoor swimming pool.

Flaggs has set a $20 million budget for the project, and has discussed doing a lease purchase venture with a private company to build and manage the facility, which would eventually be owned by the city.

The Legislature in March approved a local and private bill allowing the city, with voter approval, to levy up to a 2 mill hotel and food and beverage tax to fund the complex. A referendum on the tax is tentatively set for Jan. 12.

Thompson in July said the seven-member site committee appointed to find a site for the project had not found anything better than the Fisher Ferry and the Vicksburg Municipal Airport property for a sports complex.

The committee considered property on Mississippi 27 near U.S. 80, U.S. 61 North south of Merit Health River Region Medical Center, Ring Road off U.S. 61 South, southeast of the airport and the airport property.

The airport, which during the early summer faced closing, fell out of consideration in August when the city decided to keep it open.