A plan to begin a county soccer program was abruptly put on hold during Monday’s Lowndes County Board of Supervisors meeting after a letter to the editor from Columbus Mayor Robert Smith in Sunday’s edition of The Dispatch questioned the board’s motives.
At the beginning of Monday’s meeting, Lowndes Recreation Manager Roger Short told the board he wanted to remove from the agenda an item described as “Vision for Recreation” as city attorney Jeff Turnage, city parks director Greg Lewis and city public relations director Joe Dillon sat in the audience. Also in the audience were soccer coaches Lee Milam and Tom Velek, who brought with them trophies their teams had won in the Admiral Cup tournament held in Columbus over the weekend.
Instead of addressing the plan for a separate county soccer program, Short read a letter he had written responding to The Dispatch’s coverage, which included the mayor’s letter as well as a report on the controversy of the poor conditions at the county maintained Soccer Complex.
“…To try to shed light on what little concern I or the county have for the children of this community is a farce,” Short said, reading from his letter. “Through God’s grace, he has allowed me the opportunity to dedicate my entire career in recreation to making things better for kids — I’ve made every effort to make facilities safe and enjoyable.”
Short became the interim director of the county parks department after the county officially separated from the joint Columbus-Lowndes Recreation Authority Oct. 1. The mayor’s letter, cosigned by Lewis, alleged among other things that Short had allowed the Soccer Complex fields to fall into disrepair. The letter also criticized the plan for a separate county soccer league as an effort to weaken the city-run league.
“To try and paint a picture of a Soccer Complex in disrepair and my lack of concern is a joke,” Short said Monday, chastising the city for its intrusion. “I would think (the city) would concentrate on the future of the city recreation department rather than being so concerned over our department.”
Asked after the meeting why he chose not to present a plan for county soccer program, Short said only: “The board said we needed to have more discussions.”
Lack of support for splitting league
Sanders, however, acknowledged the county had talked about starting its own program after being approached by three coaches in the Columbus United program, which includes kids from throughout the county and city.
“Myself, Bill Brigham and Roger met with them and listened to what they said,” Sanders said. “Finally, Roger asked them, ‘What do you want us to do?’ They said, ‘We want you to start a county program.'”
Sanders said Short did call the Mississippi Soccer Association to start the process, but was told that Columbus United is the recognized group in the area. Short then made inquiries with U.S. Soccer Club to organize under its system.
In the interim, the three coaches who had requested breaking from Columbus United to join a county program changed their minds, Sanders said.
“All of the sudden, they changed their tunes,” Sanders said. “They said they didn’t want to start a new program. So that’s how we got to this point.”
Sanders said he expected Short to bring up his plans for the county’s parks and recreation at a subsequent meeting, but he expressed little support for starting a separate program.
“The board of supervisors doesn’t need to be running programs,” Sanders said. “I don’t have a problem with the county doing something like furnishing soccer fields and facilities and maintaining them. But I don’t think we need to be running programs.”
Both Milam, whose girls’ U-12 team finished as runner-up in the Admiral Cup tournament, and Velek, whose boys’ U-18 team won its division championship, urged the county not to break away from Columbus United to form its own league.
“Ultimately, any type of separation means we are separating out kids,” Milam told the board. “The team that was the finalist, the players are from all over the county and the city. We’re stronger together than we are separately. That’s the reason I’m here today, to say that.”
Velek concurred.
“This is the first U-18 boys state championship for the city of Columbus,” Velek said. “That team is made up from kids from Columbus High, Caledonia, New Hope, Heritage and home-school. If we are not all pushing the train in the same direction, we’re going to get derailed or run over.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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