CABOT — Earlier this summer, the city of Cabot broke ground on the new Cabot Sports and Aquatic Complex on Bill Foster Memorial Highway. The complex, which will sit between Kerr Station Road and Holland Bottom Farm, will be home to new ball fields and an aquatics area for the city.
John Crow, executive director of the Cabot Parks and Recreation Department, said the new 50-acre complex will have a positive impact on local businesses and tax revenue through the complex’s ability to host tournaments and parties.
“With the tournaments we can attract now, it just helps our tax revenue,” he said. “Obviously, we’re going to maintain those facilities, and it’s just going to help bring people in and make them excited to come back year after year.”
The new complex on Bill Foster Memorial Highway will contain two youth football fields, nine baseball fields and an aquatics center with an indoor party area, according to current plans. This will increase the number of baseball fields in the city from six to 15.
“This is obviously going to give us more space for games and practice,” Crow said.
The new complex will give Cabot residents a great local place to go for birthday parties and summer fun, Crow said, especially with the new aquatics area, which — according to current plans — includes a lazy river, two slides, a diving pool, a lane pool and a zero-entry area with splash pads. The aquatics facility is currently out to bid, and those bids will be opened Sept. 18.
“It gives people something to stay in town to do,” he said. “It’ll give moms and dads another local option for parties. I think we’ll see folks using our water park instead of going to other places.”
The expected draw to the new complex also has the possibility to attract new development in that area of town. Crow said he has heard whispers of increasing interest for locations near that property.
“You can see things starting to move and shake on that side of town,” he said.
Travis Young, program director for the Cabot Parks and Recreation Department, said work has already started on the baseball area to the south of the complex.
“They are removing topsoil and basically scraping down to get to grading levels,” he said. “The biggest thing so far has been working around the rain.”
Crow said the crew is about 20 percent into the dirt work for that area, and the department hopes to open the complex sometime next summer, but it is hard to set an exact date without knowing what the weather will do in the next few months.
“We’ve been pretty wet and not hot enough so far,” he said. “As far as normal construction is concerned, though, we’re on time at this point.”
Aside from the complex on Bill Foster Memorial Highway, the Cabot Parks and Recreation Department plans to add two new softball fields, which will go where the youth football fields currently sit. Construction on the new softball fields is expected to start in November when football season is over. This will increase the number of softball fields from four to six.
Also in the planning stages is an expansion of the community center, and that project will go out to bid soon and is expected to take a year to complete.
Staff writer Angela Spencer can be reached at (501) 244-4307 or aspencer@arkansasonline.com.