Vidalia residents &uot;don’t accept the word ‘can’t,’&uot; Mayor Hyram Copeland told those gathered at special meeting of the Vidalia aldermen to discuss the construction proposed recreational center Tuesday night.

Aldermen voted to delay the Jan. 15 election on a proposed 15-mill property tax increase for recreation. The tax would be designated to pay for new baseball, softball and soccer fields and other recreational facilities.

Instead, the board of aldermen and recreation board will hold a joint session during the regular aldermen meeting Jan. 11 to decide whether to propose an additional 5-mill tax in Concordia Parish Recreation District No. 3 to pay for a recreation center.

That tax would be kept separate from the renewal of a 4-mill recreation district tax that will come on the ballot in January 2006.

If the recreation board votes in favor of the new tax, a public forum would be held to help decide on the best way to proceed with development of the center.

Aldermen decided to delay the vote after some Vidalia residents and business owners raised concerns over the property tax.

Recreation board Chairman Don Joseph said the current membership would work with the aldermen to help resolve issues over the property tax and the construction of the new recreational center, but had some reservations with the proposal as it was.

&uot;If we are going to compete with bigger cities over tournaments, we have a long way to go. I have not gotten one request for a soccer field. I don’t think anyone on the (recreation) board has,&uot; Joseph said.

City Attorney Jack McLemore Jr. said, &uot;If you build it, they will come.&uot;

&uot;We don’t need something in the south of Vidalia for black people and something in the north for white people,&uot; said McLemore, who said he was not speaking for the city but as a resident. &uot;We need one center for all kind of people. We need one to be an industry, to bring people from out of town into our restaurants, to bring people to stay in our hotels.

&uot;We need to build facilities not just big enough for Vidalia, but big enough for Vidalia to grow. If we do this thing, we need to do it first rate or not at all. It’s always the same group of people who say that something can’t be done,&uot; he said.

Aldermen acknowledged the issue of the property tax has caused some controversy in Vidalia.

&uot;I don’t like to see this splitting the people of Vidalia apart. I don’t like that. We are fussing about taxes and this is for our children. There has got to be a solution,&uot; Alderwoman Maureen Saunders said.

Corinne Randazzo said at the aldermen meeting that a senior citizen recently called her expressing concerns she had over the proposed increase in the property tax.

&uot;She rents an apartment and was worried that the increase would make her rent go up,&uot; Randazzo said. &uot;She told me that she was also worried that the increase would make buying things like groceries more expensive since businesses would have to pay more taxes that they could pass on to her.&uot;

Copeland said any concerns citizens had over the tax were generated by misinformation over how much more residents and businesses would actually have to pay.

He said all the calls that have come into his office concerning the recreation center have been positive.

&uot;Not one call that I have gotten over it has been critical. They all say I like what you are trying to do there,&uot; he said.

&uot;The reason our kids don’t play soccer is because we don’t have a soccer field. It’s the fastest growing sport in America. We were told that Vidalia couldn’t build a hydroelectric plant and the Riverfront development, and we did. Our town will benefit from this. The last thing that I ever want to do is something that would be detrimental to our community.&uot;