Bill Gavin fondly remembers living in the Burns Bottom area as a child. Those days on Third Street were happy times.
“I never called it Burns Bottom; it was just home,” said Gavin, now the Ward 6 councilman. “We used to play baseball at what is now called the Hitching Lot. It was a mixed neighborhood and black and white children would play together. We lived close to downtown so we would walk to the stores and to Catfish Alley. We went to Franklin Academy and we would walk to school. I have a lot of fond memories of living in Burns Bottom.”
Gavin’s parents moved to East Columbus when he was in high school. Today, his family home stands empty and dilapidated, which was once the condition of many homes in the Burns Bottom neighborhood — a once-thriving area that had succumbed over the years to blight and urban decay. And while memories of his old neighborhood will stay with him forever, he is also equally enthusiastic about the area’s present and future.
Burns Bottom is now the site of a 70-acre development built around a $5 million recreation facility. The Columbus Soccer Complex will officially open Saturday, Sept. 22. Spread over 35 acres, the joint project between Lowndes County and the City of Columbus is home to 10 soccer fields placed among wetlands. The fields can be split into 24 smaller fields and one field is a multi-use soccer field and football field, complete with a soccer goal and football goal posts. The soccer complex also is easily accessible to both downtown and the Hitching Lot Farmers Market.
“I think the Columbus Soccer Complex has added a lot to the city and it also gives the city an opportunity to grow our downtown,” Gavin said. “We have a very vibrant downtown and we are fortunate because we aren’t landlocked like many cities our size. It will take investments from private developers to expand, but it has a lot of potential, especially for sandwich shops and restaurants. It has the potential to be great. Before the soccer park, developers would have been skeptical to develop there — it was a blighted neighborhood.”
The Columbus-Lowndes Recreation Authority will run the day-to-day operations of the park. CLRA Executive Director Roger Short said the park had been discussed in several variations for more than a decade.
“A sportsplex had been on the drawing board for about 12 years,” Short said. “We finally got to a stage where we realized soccer fields was what we needed.”
According to Short, the CLRA’s soccer program has grown substantially over the years. With 500 participants and 55 teams expected to hit the fields this year, Short said soccer tournaments at the complex will mean extra sales tax revenue for the city.
“Soccer is our second-largest program,” said Short. “(CLRA Programs Director) Greg Lewis is already booking tournaments for 2013 and 2014. The Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau is helping us book these tournaments.”
Short said the soccer complex will be a multi-use facility.
“On the two championship fields, we have electrical outlets around one of the fields,” he said. “This will be great for things like Relay For Life and other community events. Columbus High School’s soccer team will be having a tournament there in October. We will also be hosting clinics and other events there, too.”
The city will be responsible for half of the maintenance costs for the soccer complex, Short said. One Lowndes County supervisor said he is committed to future funding for the project as well.
“It’s a beautiful site and it cost a lot of money,” District 5 supervisor Leroy Brooks said. “I was always supportive of the project, I just felt like we were approving work orders without approving them. I’m supportive of the CLRA. I’m willing to vote to keep funding the project for maintenance and other needs.”
District 1 supervisor and board president Harry Sanders has been at the forefront of the project since its inception. He said the idea of the soccer complex coincided with a desire to bring urban development to Burns Bottom.
“I had so many soccer moms telling me their kids had no place to play,” Sanders said. “Soccer seemed to be the new popular sport. It was cheap to play and we thought it was a good way to keep kids off the streets, so I had an idea for a soccer park. My younger brother, David, showed me around Burns Bottom. It was blighted and he encouraged me to do some type of development there — it was a beautiful area. I went to see Kevin Stafford at Neel-Schaffer (engineering). I wanted him to do some research and see how many landowners were in Burns Bottom. And then we started talking about putting a soccer complex there. We had some public hearings and some people were against the Burns Bottom site. I was for Burns Bottom from the beginning. People started throwing all kinds of things out there, like Burns Bottom was in a flood plain. Burns Bottom hasn’t flooded since 1979.”
After several public hearings and a charette were held, renowned landscape architect Ed Blake of Landscape Studios in Hattiesburg joined forces with Neel-Schaffer and preliminary plans were developed for the Burns Bottom project. Sanders said the county and city agreed to work together on the project.
“We agreed that the county would provide most of the money and the city would do some in-kind services and donate some land,” said Sanders.
“The County took the lead on this and we did some infrastructure work –I’m glad to have been a part of it,” Ward 5 councilman Kabir Karriem said. “This is in my ward. I think it’s great. It shows what we can do when (the county and city) works together. We took a blighted area and made it nice. I think more African American kids are playing soccer and that’s a good thing.”
Although county administrator Ralph Billingsley said the city did not owe the county any money on the project, both he and Sanders mentioned an elephant in the room regarding the city’s commitment to the project.
“When we started talking about building the soccer complex, the city said they would do some work on the Trotter Convention Center,” Billingsley said.
Although the city budgeted some money for sound and lights for the Trotter in 2013, no major renovation projects were mentioned in the budget.
“If we let the city go to hell, the county will go to hell, too,” said Sanders. “We had to do something to make the city a more livable place. The soccer complex is right near our shopping district. It will give the kids something to do and give the merchants some extra customers. Our deal was we would do our part and the city would do (its) part. They need to do their part with the Trotter. I think they think if we don’t mention it, it’s just going to go away. ‘
Mayor Robert Smith said plans for the Trotter are on the horizon.
“Our deal was to donate property and provide in-kind services and the sewer and water,” Smith said. “We did almost all of the clearing and grubbing. Yes, we did agree to do something about the Trotter, but we didn’t say when or by a certain date. We did some minor renovations last year. However, there are some big plans for the Trotter that we will be discussing at a later date. We are keeping our commitment.”
Although the plans for Burns Bottom have changed since its original design — nature trails and other amenities have been placed on hold until more funding is available — Sanders said he is happy with the final product.
“I have a vision of this one day being like Central Park for Lowndes County,” he said. “We have some grant money from MDOT and the next phase of the project will be to connect it to the Riverwalk with a bridge under the overpass. It will be something nice for future generations to enjoy.”
Jeff Clark was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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