Parks and Recreation Make New Advances
May 3, 2016 — OXFORD, Miss.
New additions to Oxford’s health and fitness community include a new tennis center, pavilion, Woodlawn Park in West Oxford and intramural sports teams for teens and adults.
The Oxford Mississippi Park Commission helps provide sports teams, parks and recreation centers to keep its residents healthy and active. There are currently 11 parks and recreation centers for people to use daily.
New additions include Woodlawn Park, which is going to be the first park in West Oxford. It is going to be built starting in August and will be an on-going project for the next several years. Woodlawn Park will be built in five phases; phase one will be completed this year.
The OPC budget doesn’t contribute to the construction of Woodlawn Park, which is being built and funded by the Board of Alderman. As of right now, there is $180,000 set aside, but Alderman Jason Bailey has worked to raise around $250,000, which covers more of the costs. The park will feature an Amphitheatre, trails and other details such as trees and gardens.
Youth tennis is also gaining popularity in Oxford. “Some age groups gravitate more towards tennis, causing the participation numbers to go up, but there will be a drop in soccer at the same time,” Barkley said.
A new indoor tennis facility, which will be funded by the University of Mississippi, is coming. The university will be working with the city to build the new six court indoor facility at Stone Park. The Ole Miss Tennis Team would be able to practice and hold matches at the new courts, but the courts will continue to be maintained by the city.
Any construction would not begin until late fall or winter of this year. “We hope to also renovate and build a new activity center at Stone Park as well. I’m hoping it will be one really big building, with a possible budget of $7 million budget in bonds,” Seth Gaines, the Oxford Park Commission director, said.
“I would love to attend events such as a concert at the new amphitheater. I also play tennis every now and then and would love new courts to play on. I feel like the Oxford community will definitely use and needs more tennis courts and facilities considering how crowded most of them always are,” Benton Garrison, a student at Ole Miss, said.
According to Gaines, the OPC is provided with a budget of $1.4 million by the city which helps pay for personal services, office and agricultural supplies, maintenance and repairs, as well as services and charges, such as contractors, rentals and advertising.
Beyond this $1.4 million budget, the OPC raises money through fees for team sports and programs which is used to run the daily operations, such as provide coaches and umpires at sporting games.
Oxford, Mississippi is the fastest growing county in the state since 2012 with an expected 25,000 new students at The University of Mississippi by 2020, and 30,000 new students by 2025 according to Gaines.
With a growing population, the OPC is constantly changing or adding new teams and services. “We try to make everything as affordable as possible. For youth flag football, it’s about $55 for the whole season, and for an adult league we charge a set price for the whole team such as $500 for soccer,” Barkley said.
Another addition will be an adult social club with cheaper team sports such as ultimate frisbee, adult kickball, whiffle ball and 16-inch softball teams are being offered now and will begin by the end of April.
Beginning next year, there will be intramural sports teams offered to grades 7–12 for Lafayette and Oxford high school students.
While Oxford is growing, and we see participation in team sports increasing, there is still a huge gap in household income and the cost of activities and living.
“Typically, baseball, soccer, and flag football, are offered because they have been around a long time so we haven’t started any new sports but it’s mostly about responding to the continued demand. We don’t offer anything such as lacrosse as a league or other emerging sports to this region, but possibly in the future we would,” Jared Barkley, the athletic director for OPC, said.
There’s been a cyclical growth throughout the years, which mostly depends on how many children each family has per year. “In 2007, during the recession, fewer kids were born so we’re starting to see lower numbers because less people were having kids during that time. Soccer numbers for fall 2011, about 812 registered, but this past spring we had 615 kids,” Barkley said.
OPC saw a huge growth in basketball this year, and it’s been a steady growth in most of the sports we do. “I don’t think it’ll be an outlier where we’ll go up by 200–300 kids by anything. I think the intramural sports between the two high schools will really take off along with the new facilities as well,” Gaines said.