by KATE EVANS
A grand opening ceremony for the 9.92-acre Alex Rickli Memorial Soccer Complex will be held this Saturday, April 14 at noon. The soccer complex dedication will be held at 12 noon rain or shine, said Morgan County Parks and Recreation president Aaron Close. Refreshments will be provided.
Close said that the Morgan County Soccer League has four games scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. after the ceremony—one game on each of the soccer complex’s four fields.
The Rickli family will be there for the dedication ceremony and Alex Rickli’s brother Andrew Rickli will be kicking off the inaugural goal, he said.
The soccer complex was named for Joy Alexandria “Alex” Rickli, a local student and soccer play who was killed in June 2010 when she was struck while riding her bicycle to soccer training along a local roadway.
The Alex Rickli Memorial Soccer Complex is located on U.S. 522 South across the highway from the Morgan County Recreational Ball Field Complex.
The soccer field complex was first constructed in 2008 but has remained closed to the public since April, 2010 after pieces from crushed vehicles began surfacing after it opened. An extensive site cleanup and brownfield soil remediation project was completed last summer and additional soccer fields and playground equipment were added to the site.