Three Siloam Springs city officials did a final walk through of the soccer complex on Sue Anglin Drive with the Crowder Construction contractor. Randy Atkinson, public service director; Don Clark, community development director; and Scott Hodge, parks and recreation manager took another look at the final product.
"Basically they come together and say, 'alright well finish this,' and once that's all done we can accept the project and basically take it on as ours," said Holland Hayden, communications director.
Hayden said the Sager Creek Soccer Complex will attract people from out of town who will spend money in the area.
"We're going to be able to recruit competitive tournaments from all over the state and region probably all the way to Kansas City and a little bit beyond and spend the weekend here in Siloam while their children play competitive soccer," Hayden said.
The money comes from the sale of the city hospital. The 20-acre complex costs $800,000 without the equipment the city still needs to buy. At the end it will cost close to $1 million.
"We hope to be able to purchase bleachers, look into sponsorships for score boards, paint striping machine and mowers," Hodge said. "Its obviously a lot of new things that go a long with a new complex."
Soccer teams in the meantime are using open fields at schools in the city and Gates Rubber company has also provided them with space to play.
"The ability to bring tournaments from the outside is a very big step as far as making sure the soccer programs in Siloam Springs are accommodated as well as everything else," Hodge said.
The soccer fields have bio-swells that help slow down flooding and filter rain water and car oil from the parking lot before it goes into Mud Cat Creek nearby.
Hayden said they knew they were building the soccer fields on a flood prone area.
"In order to make sure that this is sustainable and the maintenance isn't outrageous they have built some drains underneath the fields," Hayden said.
The project is expected to be complete by Summer of Fall 2014.