Sparse attendance at an informational meeting held Tuesday at the Murray Community Center shed light on one of the project’s biggest problem.
“I was really hoping that we’d have a lot of parents show up tonight,” said Murray City Administrator and Rec Committee member Denise Simmons.
While the sports complex has received a generous amount of interest — and financial backing — it’s been a struggle to convince residents to step up and take part in planning and development.
“We need manpower that is willing to take this on because it’s going to be quite a task. This is going to be a lot of legwork, lot of phone calls, lot of chasing down grants, writing grants,” said City Council and Murray Development Corporation Board Member Dean Robins. “We’d like to see more involvement in some of the younger generation dive in and do this.”
The seven-member Rec Committee was established to spearhead the project. Currently, those members include Kristi Frederick, Denise Simmons, Danny Jensen, Ken Harrison, Craig Justice, Dave Klein and Trevor Robins. Unfortunately, these same people are already overextended. An inability to find adequate help has pushed back progress.
“If we can’t get the community support, there’s no reason to beat our heads against a wall over this,” said Craig Justice, former Murray Development Corporation chairman.
Residents like Lorena Conner are ready and willing but aren’t sure where to begin.
“I don’t have the knowledge base. I can’t walk in and lead it,” said Conner, but she is one of the parents willing to show up and help – as well as bring friends to pitch in.
Another roadblock for the Rec Complex is public misconception that the plan would compete with road repair and other public projects for funding. Construction costs won’t impact taxes. The ball field will be funded through grants and private donation.
“They’re totally separate,” said Trevor Robins, Rec Committee and Murray School Board member.
Early on, Murray residents raised $15,000 in support of the Complex. Roughly $14,000 was spent on engineering work needed to take advantage of big grant funding. Simmons and Justice are confident raising the money won’t be too big of a challenge.
Once the project is completed, the Complex will be donated to the city as a public park, and then, Simmons said, taxpayers will take on the burden of upkeep.
“As one of the discussions as we were working on the design of this was to make maintainability as easy as possible,” she said.
Other members of the Rec Committee weren’t so sure the project was set for smooth sailing. A lack of support from local entities might be an obstacle to securing grants, said Harrison. Organizations expect to see the whole town working together to get the job done. Unfortunately, due to a committee seriously strapped for time, the Rec Complex hasn’t yet received so much as a letter of support from the local school system.
Community leaders able to commit the time and effort to get things done are needed to keep the vision of a new softball and soccer field complex in Murray alive. Interested parties can contact City Administrator Denise Simmons for more details.