PARKER, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) – After being damaged by Hurricane Michael, renovations to the Parker Sports Complex were supposed to start Thursday. That was until a special meeting was called by the mayor to make some last minute changes.
You could see equipment was ready to go for the start of phase one, until some residents voiced their concerns over the new designs. Mayor Andrew Kelly called the meeting to hear the public’s thoughts and vote on a new layout.
The original design had a 40-lot parking lot in the center of the complex between the dog park, pickleball, tennis and basketball courts. It was voted to get rid of the parking lot and reposition the courts to be closer to the dog park. Kelly said he was okay with whatever the public decided, as long as it led to a beautiful complex for all to enjoy.
“I like public participation. I think it’s extremely important that the elected body hear what the public has to say and then take into consideration all of the possibilities, because if more people are thinking about the growth, then maybe with more brains involved we’ll have a better growth. My mind set was with anything I do, I try to get the public’s input,” said Kelly.
Kelly said he also hopes a renovated sports complex will help bring in more families and businesses to the area.
”We’re hoping this will be part of people wanting to come here and participate in buying new homes and they’re being built daily, bringing businesses and their families to Parker and those are also being built daily. This is something we’ve been working on since October 10th basically and we have an opportunity now to change the sports complex,” said Kelly.
Kelly said the sports complex will be completed in three phases, with the first phase set to be complete by October 1st. Phase one will cost more than $650,000. Once each phase is done, the city mails FEMA the bill to get reimbursed. All of the public works projects for Hurricane Michael recovery as a whole will be about $4 million.
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