Houston County leadership visited Winford Woodham Field in Rehobeth Monday night to present the first ceremonial check with money from the lodging tax to benefit local recreation.
County Commission Chairman Brandon Shoupe and District Three Commissioner Ricky Herring presented Rehobeth mayor Kimberly Trotter with a check for $506,000 to revamp and renovate the local recreation area.
Every official said they had connections to the local fields, as they and their children have played on them.
“(The Rehobeth ballparks) are something that need to be upgraded to make them more appealing to the crowd,” Herring said.
He said the improvements would be more than just cosmetic.
“The future is going to be brighter for these players,” he said. “When they have these facilities to play on and get better at the sport they play, later in life some of these kids might even get college scholarships.”
Mayor Trotter said the improvements were a long time coming.
“We’ve known for quite some time that we’ve outgrown our recreational facilities,” she said. “We have over 300 players every year that sign up — if you’re ever here, you’d know this facility needs some major, major upgrades.”
She said the property was not ADA compliant, and it’s not friendly to the elderly.
Additional property was purchased to build new fields and renovate old ones, and new bathrooms and new concession areas are on the way.
“We’re really excited about this,” she said. “This is going to be a great, great start on getting things where we need them to be.”
Shoupe said these improvements thanks to the lodging tax were not only great for youth — they’re also a huge benefit to the local economy.
“We’ve never been able to put a lot of money of any significance into recreation, so for the first time and forever and on in perpetuity, we will be able to continue to reinvest in recreation facilities,” he said. “We don’t have mountains, rivers, or a beach, so whatever recreation we have is because someone has bought it and paid for it.
“I’m very thankful to the citizens for approving the lodging tax, because this money’s going to go exactly to where we told them it was going to go.”
The money is expected to become available in the next 30 days.
Other localities have check presentations scheduled in the coming weeks, including in Ashford, where a check will be presented Saturday.
