Members of the Columbus-Lowndes Recreation Authority within the next few weeks will present the results of a battery of studies conducted on a trio of properties being considered for the county”s upcoming sportsplex project.
During the past several weeks, crews have been conducting environmental delineation, engineering and cost-analysis studies on the three properties selected as potential sportsplex locations.
The properties studied are a 156-acre land tract near the Columbus Riverwalk, a 50-acre piece of land near the Highway 82 Macon-Meridian exit and a 54-acre, partially publicly owned land parcel in the city”s Burns Bottom area, which includes the Hitching Lot Farmers” Market.
“We actually don”t even have all of the results of the studies yet,” said CLRA Executive Director Roger Short. “But we want to try to make sure that the city and the county will get the results at the same time.”
During the CLRA”s Monday meeting, Short is expected to announce the agency”s intent to meet with the city-county ad-hoc recreation committee and JBHM engineers to discuss the findings.
Although Short has not yet set a meeting date with the ad-hoc committee, he said it likely would be held at the Columbus Municipal Complex within a week after CLRA”s Monday meeting. The meeting also will be open to the public, Short said.
“We want to make sure everyone involved will be there so everyone can review the information at the same time,” Short explained. “We don”t want to get into a situation where we release the information to the county before the city or vice versa.”
After the CLRA ad-hoc committee meeting, city and county officials will review the study findings before CLRA officials request funding for the project at Columbus City Council and Lowndes County Board of Supervisors meetings in late June.
If the CLRA met with the ad-hoc committee before June 12, CLRA officials may request funding at the June 16 City Council meeting or the June 15 or June 30 meeting of the Board of Supervisors.
“We want to give them some time to review the findings before we go before their boards to see if we can get one of these lands funded and move forward with the project,” Short said.
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