photo by Destiney Robb

Richard Thomas-Junkin and Steven Felter skateboard down Main Street on Thursday afternoon. Both boys, along with their friends, would love to see a skate park built in Natchez.

Has recreation become a field without dreams?

By Katie Stallcup (Contact) | The Natchez Democrat

Published Sunday, July 29, 2007

With elections come promises — promises to bring jobs and improve education and recreation.

This year, many county supervisor candidates have said they want to help build recreational facilities. Natchez needs a public pool, soccer fields and new baseball fields, they say.

Not that long ago, Natchez and Adams County were about to gain a sparkling new facility that encompassed all that and more.

A place to play

In 2003, the city, the county and the Natchez-Adams School District combined forces to form a recreation commission. That commission’s goal was to plan, finance, build, operate and maintain a recreation facility that would serve young and old alike.

The recreation center was to be built on National Park Service land next to Natchez High School.

The field, dubbed “the beanfield” because of its one-time crop, was vacant and relatively inexpensive to lease. It provided enough acreage to do just about anything the recreation commission could want.

The legislation that allowed this cooperation — an interlocal agreement — was signed by the city, county and school district, then-city attorney Walter Brown said. It was then approved by the state attorney general’s office.

“The idea was to come up with a plan and put it on the ballot in November 2003 to make this a permanent arrangement and authorize the issuance of bonds to fund the program,” Brown said.

The facility would probably cost between $10 and $15 million, so county and city officials wanted the approval of residents.

An unfinished game

The board met in the spring, summer and fall of 2003, but the issue was never put on the ballot.

“The interlocal agreement would expire at the end of 2003, so the boards agreed to renew that in the latter days of 2003,” Brown said. “That would reflect the fact that we hadn’t completed our work and that we would shoot again for the 2004 election.

“That didn’t materialize either, and it expired of its own terms in December 2004. It died mainly because we couldn’t generate enough enthusiasm to carry it through.”

Others see the additional factors that added up to the plan’s demise.

F.L. “Hank” Smith served as mayor at the time. Just before the bond issue was to be put on the ballot, Johns-Mansville and International Paper closed their plants. Hundreds left town, and priorities shifted, Smith said.

“Basically, I think everybody was in agreement that the timing was bad,” Smith said. “People were just really kind of unsure what the future was going to hold directly after those closings.

“We just didn’t feel like there would be support at that time for any kind of bond issue for recreation purposes.”

The reason the recreation complex never made it out of the planning stages was because several industrial plants in the area — including Ethyl Petroleum and International Paper — closed, Supervisors President Darryl Grennell said.

“We didn’t know what kind of tax impact it would have when the plants closed,” he said. “The tax base changed dramatically, and we couldn’t burden the taxpayers with a bond issue they couldn’t pay for.”

A shrinking field

Combined with industries leaving town, the required archeological survey of the land turned up results that frustrated the plans, Smith said.

“They found some things,” Smith said. “They set aside a couple areas that they did not want disturbed. It pretty much made those areas off limits to recreation.”

On top of that, a pool would mean deeper excavation, something the park service disallowed, Smith said.

The attraction of the land beside the school was that it was centrally located and the park service leased it cheap, “for just a little of nothing, basically,” Alderman Jake Middleton said.

“They started putting limitations on us as to what we could do on the property,” said Middleton, chair of the aldermen’s recreation committee.

“It just started getting smaller and smaller. Pretty soon, we wound up with 50 or 40 acres, which was not enough to put a cloverleaf ballpark,” he said.

What the future holds

The plan may have died, but the idea of a full recreation center didn’t.

“We’re always talking about it,” Middleton said. “It comes up at almost every meeting.”

But for any future plans, the county and city must find another location for such a facility.

“We don’t want to put it on the beanfield,” Middleton said. “It won’t work. We’ve got to find 100 acres, maybe that some good person would like to donate.”

And although money is still a little tight, times have changed in a few short years, he said. With new hotels being built and casinos on the horizon, along with a promised private prison and fuel plants, outlooks are up.

“Peoples attitudes are a little more positive,” Middleton said. “People start getting back to work, and it makes everybody think a little more positively about what might happen tomorrow.”

With a little tweaking, the previous plan would still work, he said.

Supervisor’s President Grennell said he has always been a supporter of the complex and hopes to see it built.

“Right now we’re on an economic turnaround with the prison, the Rentech deal and the casinos coming to this area,” he said. “It’s time for us to start looking for plans to improve recreation for the whole community.”

Grennell pointed out the county has done some work for recreation since the project stalled by building an equestrian facility and walking trails.

District Five Supervisor S.E. “Spanky” Felter said he would like to see the complex built because it could be profitable.

“It would bring people in, it’s a money generator for the city and the county,” he said.

Felter said he would like to see the complex pay for itself with sponsorships.

“If you could get a local bank to sponsor a field and name that field the United Mississippi Bank ballpark, it would help pay for that facility,” he said.

“I’d like for that whole complex to be an advertisement complex,” he said. “Until they do that, they probably won’t get one.”