State Representative Trey Lamar is tired of waiting for the Smith-Wills Stadium drama to resolve itself. The Northside Sun reported:
It’s been two years since the state attorney general filed a lawsuit demanding the city of Jackson return Smith-Wills Stadium to its control.
So far, nothing has happened. The lawsuit is still tied up in court, but Rep. Trey LAMAR (District 8-Lafayette and Tate counties), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he plans to meet with Jackson Mayor John Horhn in the coming weeks and discuss a resolution.
LAMAR wants to see the property the stadium occupies redeveloped, but he did not speculate about what that might be.... The stadium is home to the Hank Aaron Sports Academy, and part of the property is subleased for overflow parking for the G.V. (Sonny) Montgomery V.A. Medical Center. Churchill’s Smoke Shoppe, which closed in 2024, was located there for 10 years. “There’s a legal mandate for the state to take back the property because it isn’t being used as a park,” LAMAR said. “That property belongs to the state of Mississippi.” In 2024, LAMAR added a provision to House Bill 1983 that directed the attorney general’s office to facilitate the transfer of the property to the state because it wasn’t being used as the deed required. In October 2024, the city sued the state to stop it from taking back possession of the property, and Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch filed a counterclaim against the city in Hinds County Chancery Court. The litigation is ongoing and the attorney general cannot provide a comment, said MaryAsa Lee, communications director for the state attorney general’s office. Ashby Foote, who represents Ward 1 on the Jackson City Council, hopes the city and state can work things out without confrontation. “Give us a chance,” he said. “I would prefer that they let the new administration get this thing straightened out in a way that serves the citizens. “We were sold a bad deal by the previous city administration. We didn’t get all the facts in a timely manner so we could make an informed decision.” In 1944, the city paid the state $50,000 for the land. The deed included the provision that the land would revert to the state if it was not used for “park purposes.”...It's no wonder Bennet makes no money on the facility as he operates it as a welfare project:
Allowing the Jackson Public Schools, which lack baseball facilities for all its high schools, and other colleges to use the stadium for free also adds value, he said.
Nothing has happened in the lawsuit since the Attorney General filed notice of deposition nearly a year ago. The Attorney General's office should get moving and do its job, as the legislature directed it to do.
It's nice Mr. Lamar is meeting with Mayor Horhn but frankly, it's time for the state to take it back. Smith-Wills stadium is a worn-out facility. There are no minor league teams coming to Jackson and Smith-Wills will never see the days of 1,000 attendance ever again.
The city does not have the resources to take care of its own parks, much less Smith-Wills. Let the state take it back. The stadium could be torn down and replaced with a really nice baseball or soccer complex. It could house an aquatic center as well.
The only settlement Mr. Lamar should agree to is for the state to send a check to Jackson for $50,000 or its modern-day equivalent. Jackson's time to run Smith-Wills Stadium is past and Mayor Horhn needs to realize it.
30 comments:
This is about ethnic pride and dignity. It is about you whites always thinking you can humiliate us and talk down to us. Show some respect. All you white boys too scared to even make eye contact with us. And you get your asses beat every single time you try to lay hands on us.
Don't we regularly make reference to a baseball "park?" I'm all for redevelopment, but its a shaky case for the state. Buying the property back and buying the airport would be the reasonable thing to do.
That property is probably the most prime real estate in Mississippi, a nicely repaved Lakeland Dr, a pedestrian bridge about to be constructed over it, and several museums and parks nearby. It needs to be torn down and made into a new attraction.
Governor Lamar STILL has a nice ring to it.
Why Jackson insists on keeping things it cannot run (Smith Wills, the Zoo, the water system) is a mystery. Why Fitch can't get anything done less so.
Jackson is no longer Jackson. Many facilities that had their use when the people with money used them can no longer be maintained by the people who have no money. So they rot or be demolished and hopefully replaced by something useful or at least no longer rotting away. Same with the zoo, libraries, schools, parks, etc. In the end only a downsized Jackson will survive. Sad but true. Hard decisions must be made.
The state needs to BUY Smith-Wills and also BUY the airport. Jackson needs cash, the state has it, and Jackson needs less headaches. Win-Win.
Mayor will not realize it.
In other words the Great City initiative crowd wants that property and Lamar has been tasked with getting it for them.
Change it to a hospital his buddy owns and I bet he'd vote to fund the hell out of it.
9:08 - posted by a white guy trying to stir up shit.
Fitch is a joke. If she were in private practice, she'd go bankrupt and/or get fired for doing nothing.
Or Lamar has some sort of interest in the "re-development."
Lynn Fitch’s office not doing anything? When has it ever and why does anyone think it will. Fitch is too busy thinking about being governor to be bothered by AG work.
Parking lot deal is scam those who created and approved it belong in prison.
Fitch is a ZERO.
I drive by nearly every weekday in the early afternoon. Including this afternoon. There are rarely more than 2 or 3 cars in the VA designated parking spaces. Frequently there are none parked there.
Time to file a writ of mandamus on Fitch. Maybe then she'll remember the case and do something.
To do otherwise would admit to their incompetence and corruption.
Fitch is too busy getting her nails and hair done. Give her some time.
Little Lord Fauntleroy?....not a chance. Talk about a douche.
I will never vote for Fitch again.
@9:08 You should stop gaslighting yourself with such a hate-filled worldview. Try some medical marijuana dude. The world isn't as dark as you think white people see it. Take a laxative.
9:08 is a troll. Likely a white troll as pointed out by 9:57.
Best to ignore them.
Tear down the stadium and build a botanical garden in its place.
9:08 racist much?
Sit down, adults are talking.
@12:22PM Wow, could not agree more! How awesome would that be.
Sarcasm is one of my special gifts, so I recognize it when I read it. 9:08 is being transparently sarcastic. Those of us who deploy it frequently really like it when people don't get it.
a cannabis garden-
@9:08 10/10 Rage Bait.
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