Concordia Recreation District reviews new complex plans

Published 11:44 pm Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Vidalia — The plans are in.

And on Tuesday evening the Concordia Recreation District No. 3 was discussing the newly revised plans for the Vidalia recreation complex.

“It looks good,” District President Marc Archer said standing over a preliminary rendering of what the complex could look like.

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The new complex includes multiple baseball fields, softball fields, soccer fields, tennis courts, a playground and concession stands.

Archer said the first phase of the project will include installing all the infrastructure and underground utilities on the site and some ball fields.

The complex will be built behind the Vidalia Walmart, and will be built on land owned by the City of Vidalia and the district.

Archer said he believes grants will be available to help pay for most of the utilities and infrastructure work.

Grants aside, the district is going to need approximately $6 million to get the project completed.

Archer said the district hopes to get loans and use some of its own money to finance the project.

“We don’t want to raise taxes,” he said. “And we don’t plan to.”

Archer said the district has approximately $1 million in savings and a yearly income of approximately $300,000.

Additionally once the first phase is completed, land the city currently uses for recreation could be sold and that revenue could be allocated to project funding.

While Archer and other board members are eager to see the project up and running, it won’t be any time soon.

“This won’t happen over night,” he said.

Archer said if all the funding were in place today the entire project could still be two or three years away from completion.

But no matter how far off in the future, board members are looking forward to seeing it through.

“I wish it could go faster,” said board member Casey Young. “This is something the public is going to enjoy.”