If selectmen give their approval next week, McComb’s Recreation Department can officially take on oversight of the McComb Ravens youth football organization.
The only sticking point had been transportation for the travel teams, which play games in McComb but also away at places such as Ferriday, La. Providing transportation would have put more liability on the city.
Recreation Director Ron Kessler reported during Tuesday night’s work session that Mayor Quordiniah Lockley had spoken with school Superintendent Cederick Ellis about partnering with the school district for transportation. That’s similar to the agreement the schools have with the Boys & Girls Club of Southwest Mississippi.
Board attorney Angela Cockerham will work with school board attorney Ashley Atkinson to draw up an agreement between the city and school district.
Kessler said three scheduled road trips would cost $588. He said other costs would include $1,000 in premiums on the player participation insurance; and $170 per player, assuming the full registration of 30 players for each of three age levels, for jerseys, pads and helmets — $12,288 in upfront costs.
“We have that in our special revenue account, and we have tournaments scheduled (at the Sports Park) every weekend till August,” Kessler said. “It’s no problem to pay for these upfront.”
Registration will be held March 25-29 and cost $40. Late registration will be $50. Parents will have to purchase uniform pants for up to $25 and mouthpieces for up to $5 at local sporting goods stores.
Kessler and selectmen also discussed possible uses for $500,000 being borrowed against anticipated hotel and motel tax proceeds through the end of the tax term in 2021.
Kessler proposed two phases of projects, with a first phase that would cost slightly more than the $500,000 to be borrowed.
His list included a splash pad, rubber surface playground and bathroom facility at Algiers Park for $245,000; Renovation of the concession stand and bathrooms at East McComb Activities Field for $3,000; a bathroom facility for Edgewood Park, $45,000; a rubber-surface playground at the Sports Park, $75,000; and lights for the multipurpose football field at the Sports Park, $136,000.
Kessler said installing the rubber-surface playgrounds would reduce safety issues where playgrounds have sand or dirt surfaces, and give children brought to siblings’ games something to occupy them at the Sports Park.
He said lighting the multipurpose field would allow for more events to be held there in the course of a day, and allow games to be played when weather is cooler in the evenings.
Lockley presented a slate of projects that differed somewhat, including concrete basketball courts that Kessler had included in a previous master list but excised from his two-phase proposal.
Selectman Devante Johnson asked to cut down the list of projects for Algiers to spread the money around the more in the first phase, and Selectman Shawn Williams asked to keep the projects in Algiers in the first phase to beef up a park that now has no amenities.
The board agreed to discuss the matter further at the next work session on March 19 at the McComb Public Library.
Kessler also reported the Clinnesha Sibley and the Southwest Mississippi Multiplex for Early Innovative Intervention Studies had decided not to hold a summer camp at the MLK Center because of the cost of liability insurance.
He said Sibley would hold a smaller camp at a dance studio owned by a friend and try to build toward a bigger camp next year.
