The Pierce County Recreation Board agreed on two layouts for the updated Ware Street recreation complex and the proposed new sister complex on County Farm Road.
The agreement came during a retreat at Mossy Pond Retrievers in Offerman last week.
The proposed new layout for the Ware St. complex would have four green spaces for football and soccer where the baseball fields are currently located plus two additional green spaces and additional parking in a new area on the other side of Yeomans St.
The proposed layout for the new rec complex on County Farm Rd. would hold 10 baseball fields and two smaller practice fields plus parking.
After a lunch of pork chops, risotto and fried okra, the rec board, composed of Brad Arington, Anna Saucedo, Trey Thompson, Chris Wright and Jake Stewart heard a brief presentation from Appling County Athletic Coordinator Mike Lynn and administrative assistant Chelsea Carter.
Others present for both meal and the meeting that followed included Rec Director Maureen Brown, Administrative assistant Bonnie Bickerstaff, County Chairman Neal Bennett, Commissioners Troy Mattox, Randy Dixon and David Lowman and Public Works Director Bruce Carter.
The pair from Appling were invited to discuss their experiences with and answer questions about Rec Desk, computer software designed to simplify managing rec programs, which could be a potential purchase by the Pierce Recreation Department. After a brief discussion about the various applications of Rec Desk, the real purpose of the meeting began in earnest.
Clustered about the tables where they had just eaten, groups of attendees debated the relative merits of various maps provided by consulting engineers Carter and Sloope of Macon. There were nine different maps with proposed field layouts, the majority of them concerned with how to best update and maximize the original rec complex at Ware St.
The emerging front runners of the proposed layouts were maps 6 and 7, which split the two rec areas into soccer/football at Ware St. and baseball at County Farm Rd.
Unfortunately, there was a problem with map 7. Three additional fields were proposed to be installed across from the existing rec area along Yeomans St. However, Public Works Director Carter pointed out an important consideration.
“I’ve got no opinion either way it goes, but the pictures on the map are not relative to the actual grade of the land. There is an 8 to 10 foot drop to the back of the lot,” said Carter.
Though map 7 proposes soccer/football fields, which can be terraced to avoid some of the drop off and the drainage problems that go with it, Carter made a strong case that the third field would require massive and expensive loads of fill dirt to build up the land sufficiently to begin construction.
“Spending $1 million on dirt is out of the question,” said Arington.
With this in mind, the rec board voted to amend the proposed layout of map 7 to relocate the third soccer/ football field from the area on the west side of Yeomans St. to a spot where four of the oldest ball fields at Ware St. are located.
“We’ll have to put green space on those old ball fields,” said Arington.
The alternative was to lose a soccer/ football field and leave the oldest fields in place, but the idea of merely updating the older complex did not prove popular with those gathered. As board member Anna Saucedo put it, “It wouldn’t look right to have one side totally new and looking good and the other side just older and only a little updated.”
However, the rec board was very aware of the sentimental fondness many local citizens, including members of the board itself, have for the old rec fields. Arington recalled hitting his first homerun at the old rec ball fields, but said he felt it was the board’s duty to recommend the best possible use of both land and money.
“If I had to guess,” said Jake Stewart, “the guys that were honored with their names on the fields would just want to see the kids happy.”
This prompted a discussion about ways to honor the legacy of those departed community members who had already contributed so much to the old rec department. Proposals included transferring their names from the old fields to the new ones and some form of memorial in the form of a plaque or monument to commemorate them.
Ultimately, the rec board voted on map 6 and an amended map 7, both passing unanimously. Being an advisory body, the rec board can only make recommendations to the county commission, but members of the commission present at the retreat seemed to respond positively and raised no objections to the proposed choices.
Now, the future of Pierce’s rec department is the hands of the county commission.
