City needs to address areas of concern about sports complex for full support

Published 9:41 am Friday, October 21, 2016

The case to be made about the city’s proposed sports complex should be an easy sale.

We know a need exists. We know the widespread acceptance of such a facility would be good for Vicksburg, the economy.

We also know the popularity of youth sports is a perfect market for filling the park most weekends in the spring, summer and fall.

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We also know plenty of questions exist.

This week, Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs Jr. named a three-member committee to prepare a request for proposals for a company to market the future sports complex.

While we applaud the mayor’s long-range vision of such a facility, and following through on a suggestion we made last June, we believe a marketing plan — rather a campaign — must be started to convince city voters the plan for funding this multi-million-dollar facility is sound.

The city must also convince community members that the proposed site, on Fisher Ferry Road, is a sound location.

We have our doubts, as do many others.

During the site selection process, which supposedly evaluated the pros and cons of a number of sites around Vicksburg, including some just outside the city limits, we challenged the idea of the Fisher Ferry site for two main reasons.

The first was the property, while already owned by the city, would reportedly require far more site development to address routine flooding worries.

The second, and of the most interest to many, was that Fisher Ferry is a road already battling congestion at times and adding a large sports facility to that area would — in our opinion — only worsen the problem.

If these two areas of concern have been addressed and plans are in place to fix both, then we can move on together on this project.

We continue to be a strong supporter of the sports complex idea and have endorsed funding items that include increased lodging and restaurant taxes to fund the park’s construction.

But, as we said last June, the devil remains in the details and our city leaders need to iron out those details soon. A referendum is planned for the June municipal election ballot and voters will need answers, details and proof before an informed decision can be made.

We are not worried about a marketing firm selling Vicksburg and a new sports complex, we are more concerned about the city selling voters the project and its plans are worth approving.