LUCEDALE, Miss. (WLOX) – Youth sports are so popular in George County that the City of Lucedale has voted to increase the sales tax on restaurants and hotels to help fund the parks and athletic fields that barely have enough space to accommodate youth sports programs.

“Until we get more fields, we’re going to run out of space for the kids. Last year we had over 430 kids sign up and then we cut back,” said Billy Anderson, director of Little League Baseball in Lucedale.

He told WLOX News he has watched the programs push the limits of what current facilities could offer, particularly in baseball and football.

“We all play in one complex,” Anderson explained. “Football is down on the mountain, we play up on the mountain, that’s how we describe it. As the county grows, we’re at capacity and could both use each other’s fields to continue to grow.”

Clay Wedgeworth, president of the George-Greene County Soccer Association, is all too familiar with the problem.

“You have to work together to figure out when you’re going to train and when I’m going to train,” he said. “And on Saturdays it’s morning to night, all day, but the kids enjoy it.”

12 acres of land were recently donated to the Town of Lucedale by Billy Anderson and Craig Vincent to build a new 14-field soccer complex.

Although the multi-million dollar project will not be funded by the Pennies for Parks program, the sales tax money will ensure the maintenance of the park and all other facilities and hire a new director for the sports programs.

The referendum was passed on Tuesday evening and provides for the introduction of an additional tax of one percent on restaurant sales and three percent on hotel sales.

George County residents are expected to vote on the same sales tax increase in November.

“There are easily over a thousand kids that come through here and need somewhere to practice and play,” said Al “Coach” Jones, councilman for Lucedale’s Fourth Ward. “If we can get the new soccer complex completed, we will go back to where soccer is now and use those fields to build more baseball and softball fields and also put in a pee-wee football field.”

Jones told WLOX News that this project is very close to his heart, in part because he has dedicated 30 years of his life to promoting sports enthusiasm among children.

The soccer complex and expansion of existing parks will not happen overnight, as both Lucedale and George County are looking for outside funding sources such as grants and state funds to supplement their tight budgets.

“The old saying goes, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time,” Jones noted. “We’ll take the first bite and we’ll keep chewing it and keep working at it until we can get these young people housed. They’re only young once in their lives.”

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