VIDALIA — The Vidalia Board of Aldermen ratified an agreement Tuesday with the Concordia Parish Recreation District No. 3 to partner on the Vidalia Recreation Complex, but one alderman said the town’s money could be better spent elsewhere.

Mayor Buz Craft said an agreement existed, but was apparently never ratified as reflected in the town’s minutes. Craft said nothing changed with the agreement.

“We just ratified it so we could do it legally,” Craft said.

The town will continue to maintain the fields, but will not be directly involved in management of the leagues or tournaments. The salaries for the people who maintain the entire park including the pond is approximately $160,000, and the recreation commission reimburses the town $20,000 toward maintenance.

The recreation board pays for utilities and the insurance associated with the park, Craft said. The town will make purchases for infrastructure repairs on the field such as lights, but Craft said the recreation commission reimburses those items.

To ease concerns Alderman Tommy Probst had about what passing this agreement would mean for previous agreements, Alderman Jon Betts made an amendment to his motion to repeal any previous cooperative agreements the town had involving the complex.

Alderman Tron McCoy also had one amendment — to clean up the language to clarify that purchasing rights for the park’s director would be at the expense of the recreation district.

Probst said he still had concerns. Probst said he had been researching a town’s typical obligations with a recreation districts for a year, but he still had some research to complete.

Probst said entering into a 10-year agreement might be too long, as he’d like to see it be more like one year with the right to rescind at any point.

McCoy said having the right to rescind at any point would not make it an agreement.

Probst said he also had concerns about the language in the marketing section of the agreement.

Taxpayers are funding a $4 million tax for the recreation district, so Probst said why should the town provide extra?

The town is better off using its resources to lower the town’s utility rates or provide rebates to residents on utilities rather than put the funding toward recreation, Probst said. Vidalia officials have previously discussed residents’ dissatisfaction with the high utility rates in the town.

“Why are we the City of Vidalia getting involved in recreation?” Probst said. “We don’t need to get into the recreation business. That’s the recreation board’s responsibility.”

McCoy said without the town getting involved in the process, the recreation complex would not be a reality.

“We have been in this business of getting this complex done from the very beginning,” McCoy said. “The results of what we have, based on what we did, are excellent.”

Craft said the town is happy to market the recreation complex along with the other attractions to the town. Craft said the majority of the marketing is done on social media.

“We are 100 percent on board for promoting our town — it spurs commerce and involvement with each other,” Craft said. “It is also providing the youth of our town something to do, a place to go where the parents and grandparents can come together and enjoy the town.”

The intangible benefits such as sales tax and people staying in hotels are difficult to weigh, but Craft said driving around town he can see a difference at the local businesses beginning in February or March when the fields start to be utilized.

“This is one of the best things the town has got to bring people together — people in the region — to come here to participate on the fields,” Craft said. “This past week, I saw school busses parked at McDonald’s and Johnny’s Pizza.

“People are spending money in this town to come use our facilities.”

The agreement being ratified was approved 4-1, with Probst voting no.