by Kate Evans
The Morgan County School Board unanimously approved the agreement to transfer the Alex Rickli Soccer Complex property to Morgan County Parks and Recreation at their November 13 meeting. The board authorized School Superintendent Erich May to sign the deed and other necessary documents to complete the conveyance.
May said that their legal counsel advised the board to keep it simple and to give the deed to Parks and Recreation and let them work out the reverter clause for the property with the Morgan County Commission.
Morgan County Parks and Recreation Board president and Morgan County School Board president Aaron Close formally asked the school board to approve the sale of the Alex Rickli Soccer Complex to the Parks and Recreation Board for a nominal fee with the Morgan County Commission’s approval at their October 2 meeting.
The school board bought the soccer complex land from the Morgan County Commission in 2012 for $1 so that the property could be eligible for a $200,000 brownfields clean-up grant. The site was closed in April, 2010 after shards of glass from crushed vehicles began surfacing in the soil.
The extensive site cleanup and soil remediation project was completed in the summer of 2017. Additional soccer fields, playground equipment and bio-retention ponds were added to the site before its grand opening in April.
With the remediation and project completed, the school board buildings and ground committee had discussed returning ownership of the soccer complex to the County Commission or transferring it to another entity to manage if the commission didn’t want it back, Close said previously.
All parties involved had agreed that Parks and Recreation was the best entity to oversee and maintain the Alex Rickli Soccer Complex, May said.
The Morgan County Commission, the Town of Bath and the Morgan County School Board each have three representatives that serve on the nine-member Morgan County Parks and Recreation Board.
File photo of county soccer complex.
