A proposed Salem soccer complex has a new home.
The city is acquiring the old fairgrounds property—a 5.6-acre tract at 600 S. Grand—in a land swap with the current owners, Sherman and Marsha Odom. The city will also pay $150,000 in cash.
The property was site of the annual Fall Festival for decades before it moved to the Dent County Commons in the early 2000s.
An ordinance authorizing the land swap was approved by board of aldermen at its June 17 meeting. The sale will close by June 30, the ordinance states.
The property being traded is a 17-acre tract on Highway 19 South acquired in 2006 for soccer fields. That site was included in a February application for a Land & Water Conservation Fund grant to develop a soccer complex. The application has now been withdrawn with an eye toward developing the fairgrounds property instead.
“It’s my understanding parks and rec plans to reapply for a LWCF grant in the spring,” said City Administrator Ray Walden.
The new site is already served by city utilities.
“We’d had a range of estimates to take utilities out to the property south of town,” Walden said. “This will save that money and allow us to finish that field sooner than if we had we had to wait on the property south of town.”
Park Board President Stan Podorski called the purchase a smart move if the sale closes as expected.
“It’s a good piece of property,” he said. “It will save the city a lot of money over a longer period of time. With the accessibility of the electric and water, it’s just a no brainer.”
Preliminary sketches call for two soccer fields side by side with the goals on the north and south and parking all the way around the property.
The Odoms acquired the fairgrounds property in 2014 but it was not currently being used, Walden said. The property is centrally located and has been the site of many fairs, agricultural shows, baseball games and other community activities over the years.
“That was the center of the community for a long, long time,” said City Attorney William Camm Seay, who grew up a few blocks away. “It’s an ideal location because it’s center city and offers opportunity for kids to get to it by walking or biking.”
The property is about four blocks long and is bordered by Franklin to the north, Orchard to east, Grand to the west and International to the south.
Seay said he was directed to make contact with the Odoms.
“It was made known to me they may be interested in trading for the property on 19 South,” he said. Negotiations have been going on for the last couple of months.
Appraisals were made on both properties. The property on Highway 19 South appraised at $30,500, less than the $90,150 it was purchased for in 2006 from Norman Short, Walden said. He said the current appraisal for the old fairgrounds property is $244,000.
The lack of water, electric and sewer service there made it virtually unusable to the city without a sizable expenditure to extend utilities, Seay said. It would have taken more than two years to develop the site, according to estimates.
“The parks and rec board gave it quite a bit of thought, as did the aldermen,” Walden said. “And they just felt it was in the program’s best interest to pursue this property vs. trying to develop south of town, although it meant withdrawing this year’s LWCF grant application.”
City officials inquired about changing the property on the application but were told they would have to reapply in the spring. Some fundraising and in-kind contributions will be required to qualify for the grant.
The park board decided on the Highway 19 site a couple of years ago and made its recommendation to the board of aldermen. But other priorities had to be addressed first. The city pool and park needed a major renovation that was accomplished in 2018 at a cost of about $1.6 million.
“It had a great deal of disadvantages yet we already owned it so the idea was to try to take advantage of what we already owned,” Seay said. There was also a discussion among aldermen about using the old middle school property once it was demolished, but there were concerns about parking.
The sale was implemented by City of Salem for the parks & recreation board.
“It’s their baby, and it’s another example of how forward thinking our parks and recreation department has become with the public’s sales tax money,” Seay said.
“We can’t commend them enough for trying to develop everything they possibly can to provide recreation for, not just our young people, but for adults in the community, too.”
