Albany City Commission sets recreation as a priority for 2021

ALBANY — It’s back to the drawing board for the city of Albany’s recreation master plan as elected officials want to take a fresh look at the future needs for residents of all ages.

Albany City Commission members also want to consider how to best allocate millions of dollars in sales tax dollars to ensure those needs are met.

Over the past 20 years or so, three different consultants have been enlisted to make recommendations, the last effort coming in 2006, Mayor Bo Dorough said. The latest iteration had some good recommendations, but the commission seems to be leaning toward making a new start with a new plan.

In other versions, the consultants suggested an expansion of the city’s adult softball facilities at the Gordon Sports Complex. Dorough said softball’s popularity is waning, and that other ideas suggested fall short of meeting current and future needs.

“We’ve got to revitalize our youth programs,” Dorough said. “We’ve got to meet the needs of the community. That includes exercise, physical fitness, aerobics for seniors.”

The effort will require trying to revitalize the old — such as a youth football program that has not drawn participation in recent years — as well as new activities such as pickleball, and e-sports that have gained popularity with younger people, many of whom are less interested in the traditional activities such as baseball and basketball.

Dorough also would like to see a revitalization of the First Tee golf course located behind the Albany Civic Center. Along with a Dougherty County tennis project in the works, which he would like to see located at the same site, that would help develop youngsters’ interest in those two “lifetime sports” he said.

The Dougherty County Commission has not selected a site for a planned $1.7 investment to develop improved tennis facilities.

Like the county, the city will look to the special purpose local option sales tax (SPLOST) for funding those efforts as it will require a large sum of money, Dorough said.

“It’s going to have to be in SPLOST, because that’s the only place to get the money,” he said. “I think that (recreation) should be a priority.”

The City Commission will take up the issue for discussion during its annual retreat scheduled for February, Commissioner Jon Howard said.

During the 2020 retreat, a quality of life task force, which includes recreation, was one of several task forces established — and the commission has set quality of life as a priority.

After seeing a presentation from Albany architect David Maschke, Howard said, there is some reluctance to pursue previously planned refurbishing of Bill Miller and Henderson gyms. Both facilities, Bill Miller in east Albany and Henderson located in the southwest, have been identified as being in the 100-year flood plain.

“It’s like throwing bad money after god,” Howard said of attempting to modernize the old structures that were built in the 1970s. “I agree those gyms have outlived their usable (life). I’m of the opinion if you want something presentable, you build from the ground up.

“I’d be ashamed to take anybody to see those gyms, much less take them inside.”

Building from scratch also will present the opportunity to include new features, such as rooms for arts activities, computers and for esports.

Both sites have room for added exterior features such as walking tracks that could be used by senior citizens for exercise and fellowship, he said.

“Not everybody who goes to the gym wants to play basketball,” Howard said. “You need a place where they can do ceramics or e-sports.”

Renovating the gyms would cost more than $1 million each, while new facilities would likely cost about $2 million each, Howard said. He said money already earmarked for renovations could be available to help fund the projects. There also could be money left over in existing SPLOST initiatives previously approved by voters in the city, he said.

The work on a modern recreation master plan also will provide the opportunity to look at the current gym sites to determine whether they are the best fits for the city’s population density that has changed in the 40-plus years since they were built, Commissioner Chad Warbington said.

“We kind of got blindsided by the facilities being in the flood plain,” he said. “We kind of had to look at it again.

A lot has changed since the 2006 plan was formulated, Washington said.

“We kind of need to look at the new trends in recreation,” he said. “We kind of need a new master plan.”

New buildings are only part of the puzzle, however. The commission also wants to identify where the needs are for programming and how new facilities will enhance recreational opportunities for residents of all ages.

“There’s a lot of new sports out there,” Warbington said. “It’s not just football, basketball and baseball. Soccer has gained in popularity.

“There’s also the fine arts. Sports doesn’t appeal to every kid. We want these places to be magnets, and being magnets means being places kids want to come.”

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