The long-awaited Bayou Country, LA. Sports Park is now open, though many aspects of the grand scheme are incomplete.
Terrebonne Parish and Recreation District 2-3, which oversees the park, held an opening ceremony for the first completed phase of the park Thursday night. Board members are encouraging the public to come out and see the park for themselves.
Five baseball/softball fields are now open, with full lighting, restrooms and a concession stand.
The second baseball and softball pod is expected to open for daytime use by the end of the year, along with 10 batting cages and four of the soccer fields with a concession and restroom area.
The park is at 4374 La. 311 in Houma and is open from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., or 9 p.m. during Daylight Savings Time.
“We started this, and didn’t raise any millages on anyone. We kept the millages where they were. Terrebonne Parish, through my administration and the council, we committed over $4 million into this project along with Rec 2-3 and the hotel-motel tax, and of course, their millages that they collect, and you can see the result,” Parish President Gordy Dove said at the opening ceremony.
While the parish didn’t raise any property taxes, voters did pass a 1% hotel/motel tax in 2013 that the parish used to sell $2.9 million in bonds the next year to help build the park while it battled for state construction money that never came.
Once the current projects at the new complex are complete, however, the board has acknowledged that there’s no set plan for paying for the rest of the park’s multimillion-dollar master plan. Rec Reform for Terrebonne, a community group, is calling for a restructuring of the entire recreation system to help pay for these large projects that aim to benefit the whole parish.
Dove told the crowd he was committed to finishing the park without raising taxes on anyone. Rec Reform’s plan would consolidate some of the northern Terrebonne recreation districts, and level out property taxes between them; in some areas, taxes would increase but decrease in others.
Earlier this month, voters rejected a renewal for Recreation District 2-3′s property tax, its main revenue source. The district has some time to place the measure on the ballot again, or change it, before the tax expires at the end of 2020.
Despite the funding uncertainty, officials praised the partnership between the parish and the rec board that has resulted in the opening of the park.
“This is located in my district, but this is much bigger than District 6,” Councilman Darrin Guidry said. “What you see here could not have happened without working together with all of these fine council people here. They worked on this project knowing it’s not in their district, but knowing it’s good for Terrebonne Parish. And we will continue to work together, and with our parish president and this board to get this park finished. We’re committed to that.”
The recreation district has set aside money to finish all 11 soccer fields and a family day-use area with a splash pad and walking park. The parish is also chipping in to pay for the paved road through the park to Valhi Boulevard and decorative lighting.
The ceremony was followed by the parish’s first Buddy Ball adaptive sports event. Rec 2-3 Chairman Jeff Teuton said the board is looking into adding adaptive playground equipment to the park but noted that some has already been installed at the district’s Summerfield Park.
With the park now officially open, several tournaments are expected at the first softball and baseball pod this fall while area soccer teams start to use the new fields in the back section of the park.
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