Propst Park construction project moves forward to design stage

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- Columbus leaders take the next step to revamp Propst park. The city will begin bidding to contractors for designing 4 baseball fields, adding on to the current field already standing and improved lighting at the right price. The project is estimated at just over $2 million.

A 2% tax with the city will be used to help pay for the project at around $1.6 million. City engineer Kevin Stanford says the lighting will be one of the more costly parts of the project.

“Is Columbus Light and Water going to be doing the lights?” the public information officer of Columbus, Joe Dillon, asked.

Stafford responded, “We don’t know yet… the Field of Dreams for instance to your question when that project came together at that time we decided not to afford the lighting and said we’ll upgrade it when we finish out the wheel. We’ll light and water came in pro-bono and put those lights in. Put them down, built the field, came back, and put them in at no cost to the city. So, if that comes through the conversation, that could be a route we go to try and get inside of that budget that we have coming at $1.6 million that I referenced.”

The city expects to start construction in the fall and have the fields ready for baseball season in 2023.