County struggles with fairgrounds

It has been three years since Tom Atkins donated 80 acres adjacent to the Boone County Fairgrounds with hopes of developing much-needed sports fields. Now, with only one year remaining before a $76,000 federal grant for the fields is revoked, the county is having difficulty getting the project started.

Boone County Commissioner Skip Elkin said the grant from the National Parks Services’ Land and Water Conservation Fund for two youth baseball fields on the Atkins tract included an obligation by county government to work with the Missouri National Guard for initial dirt work.

The dirt work was originally planned to be a part of the Guard’s innovative readiness training, Elkin said. Due to the war in Iraq, however, Elkin said those troops have been deployed overseas and can’t take on the fairground work.

“That kind of threw a wrench in our plans,” Elkin said. “Certainly, national security takes precedent over ballfields in Boone County. We just need to find other alternatives.”

Delays in developing the Atkins tract is one of several issues swirling around the county-owned fairgrounds. Commissioners are also trying to determine how to manage the property and whether to develop a minor league ballpark there.

The county has known for some time that the fairgrounds, which it purchased in 1999 for $2.6 million, were in financial trouble and in need of a new operating strategy. The management issue became more pressing when the not-for-profit board that organizes the annual Boone County Fair expressed its intentions to relinquish its year-round operational duties at the fairground.

“At the present time, there isn’t enough money for (the ball fields),” said Presiding Commissioner Keith Schnarre. “Our biggest concern right now is how to manage the grounds. We can’t get too many irons in the fire.”

Elkin said the county has worked with a local engineering firm to come up with preliminary topography maps for the Atkins tract. “Our next step is to engage in full engineering services for the site,” he said.

But the county hasn’t identified a way to pay for the $40,000 in dirt work that University of Missouri engineers have estimated needs to be done before the fields can be built.

Elkin said the county Public Works Department could, but most likely will not, do the necessary grading. “We have a kind of policy with them that they will spend their time on the roads,” he said.

Public Works Director David Mink and Elkin both said that it would be difficult to justify spending public works revenue on the site preparation.

The county has until the end of 2006 to complete the fields and take advantage of the federal grant.

Atkins, a longtime Columbia resident and a member of the University of Missouri Board of Curators, donated the 80 acres jointly to Columbia and Boone County in 2002.

“I intended it to be used for the community, a place for family gatherings, similar to what Cosmo has at its park,” Atkins said. “There’s a great need for soccer and football fields,” he said. “I know this because of my grandchildren. I also know how valuable open land is to the city.”

The Atkins tract joined the 134 acres the county bought from the fair board, whose formal name is the Boone County Agricultural and Mechanical Society.

“It’s too bad we haven’t had the chance to get them started, but things like this usually go slower than you want them to,” Atkins said. “The problem with the National Guard set us back a little.”

Columbia Park Services Manager Mike Griggs said there is $700,000 earmarked in Proposition 1 on the Tuesday ballot for sports fields, but the city hasn’t decided whether to develop those fields on the Atkins tract or on the Philips property in southeast Columbia, where a city park is planned along with commercial development.

“There are funds for athletic facilities at either Philips, Atkins, existing parks, or even future parks, but no decision has been made yet,” Griggs said.

Griggs said that Parks and Recreation has been working with the county in developing plans for the fairgrounds.

“We worked with the planning staff, which at the time was the university, on how they would like to see the fields worked out when they were working on the master plans,” Griggs said. “We have also stayed in close contact with the county on the layout of the fields.”

The county and the Columbia Parks and Recreation Department co-own the master plan for the fairgrounds that was officially adopted by the county in 2003. The plan calls for a complex of multipurpose fields for sports such as soccer, baseball and rugby, and is estimated to cost around $5 million, Elkin said.

Plans call for multiple phases, running as long as it takes to accumulate funding, Elkin said. He said that more definite plans for construction, costs and completion will be developed as funding sources arise.

Griggs said the Columbia area needs more quality ball fields.

“We desperately need playing fields for all sports,” Griggs said. “We’re playing games late at night because we don’t have enough fields. The baseball season is split into two, and the tournaments have outgrown Columbia. The tournaments that we used to host, we can no longer host because we don’t have enough fields.”

Another option under consideration, Elkin said, involves recent legislation that allows for the creation of regional recreation districts. If the fairgrounds were made into a recreation district, a board of trustees could impose fees on events there, Elkin said.

Commissioners have also been toying with the idea of allowing the Mid-Missouri Mavericks to build a minor league stadium on the grounds. There has not been a formal proposal, but the county has toured two other stadiums in the Frontier League to get an idea of what Mavericks president Gary Wendt would like to see built on the grounds.

The next step for county commissioners is a meeting next week with representatives from SCORE, a nonprofit organization that offers advice on starting and structuring new businesses, to discuss overall operation of the fairground. Elkin said the commission will be a little closer to knowing the future of the fairgrounds in the next couple of weeks.