The Salem City Council over the objection of soccer supporters has approved the sale of nearly 24 acres of land that was going to be the site of the city’s soccer complex to Salem Enterprises, LLC.
The company is purchasing the land for $210,000 with the intent of constructing a building for a new industrial manufacturing facility on the northeast corner of West Main and Selmaville Road. The manufacturing company has not been named, but Mayor Nic Farley says they expect to provide 90 good jobs in their initial phase of operation.
The decision to sell the land did not sit well with soccer players and their families who thought the city was well underway to the construction of a soccer field complex. City Manager Rex Barbee said an engineering report that unexpectedly placed the cost of drainage improvements alone for the complex at $680,000 came in at the same time the interest was shown in buying the property.
Farley openly admitted the city had done a poor job on moving the facility forward in a fast and timely manner after a groundbreaking a few years ago.
“We have put $100,000 in the budget this year for a soccer complex and we still intend to move forward. Obviously at the current site that’s no longer an option with the council’s action tonight, but I am committed to helping find a new space and getting community members involved. So I have reached out to a few of the soccer parents and members of the community to help us form an advisory board and hopefully help us move this forward much faster.”
Farley hopes this can be a blessing in disguise to shoot some life into the project to make it happen sooner than later. The Mayor had hoped to put the proceeds from the sale of the land towards the new facility but has learned that won’t be possible because the purchase was made with tax increment financing district funds that have to stay in the district. He says he has two potential sites in mind to relocate the complex but didn’t want to name them yet until there is further discussion.
Both parents and soccer players holding homemade signs of Save our Soccer Fields filled the city council chambers. Among the players speaking was a member of the SCHS Soccer Team Madison Freiboth who said the team is made fun of because of their trash field that is dangerous to play.
“They like to say things about our field and talk about it and I feel like everybody on the high school team we have to worry about who is going to get injured. We had a girl mess up her ankle, we had a girl step in a hole and her foot is terrible.”
Salem Community High School soccer player talks about lack of adequate facilities for soccer teams at Monday’s City Council meeting.
Dr. Creighton Engle who attends many out-of-town tournaments with his grandson encouraged the city to get a vision for what they wanted.
“When you’re going to get teams in you must have a quality field and if you are going to plan the project correctly, you need to have game fields and practice fields and you must have multi-purpose game fields….this takes a lot of work.”
Another soccer parent Ashley Stanford estimated 260 kids in the community are involved in soccer without a good place to play.
“I along with many others are understandably frustrated with the apparent lack of planning or urgency to see this plan come to fruition. If the land was being developed into the soccer park as it was promised, the company would not even be able to make a bid tonight. Please do not let these kids down. A soccer park would be such a huge asset for the youth of this community plus potentially a huge revenue generator.”
The First Christian Church is currently providing the high school soccer field, but Minister Phil Martin says the church was about saving souls and not building soccer fields. He encouraged the city to try to get help from those buying the land and name the complex after them if they would provide the needed funding.
Councilman Jim Koehler noted the schools also have a responsibility of providing fields for their teams and the school boards should be approached for help as well.
There was also a question asked if the company involved would deal with cannabis, something the Mayor quickly said absolutely not.
