ENTERGY IS GETTING ready to play sandbox with real front-end loaders where city of Madison residents and children used to play soccer. The city may have sold a soccer field, but the $600,000 they made will be used to purchase more recreational land.

“I don’t have a problem with the new station, as long as we can get more recreational property,” said Vern Boothe, director of parks and recreation for the city of Madison.

The land Entergy purchased from the city of Madison for their new substation is currently a soccer field. The field is one of the five currently in use at Liberty Park.

“After construction begins the field will no longer be used and the park will have four soccer fields, but that’s fine,” Boothe said. “We currently are looking into a new recreational space for the use of the citizens of the city of Madison.”

One of the places Boothe mentioned was a 150 acre lot the city of Madison owns across from Liberty Park. Another possibility is a type of partnership with Chris Snopek owner of Performance Sports Academy (PSA), who is in the process of purchasing land for a new facility north of the city of Madison.

“The property we are considering to have a partnership with Snopek, hasn’t been purchased yet,” Boothe said. “If we can help kids and families have more opportunities to stay fit, then we have no problem partnering with anyone.”

SNOPEK PREVIOUSLY had a site plan that would have situated his new facility in the city of Madison but it was shot down and just a few months ago he re-approached the Madison city Board of Aldermen and got approval for a site plan north of the actual city.

“We would love to have a relationship with the city of Madison. We have every intention of trying to develop a relationship with the city of Madison and Mayor Hawkins Butler,” Snopek said. “Nothing is confirmed contractually yet, but we have a large amount of land and once everything is finalized we hope to have a relationship with not only the city of Madison but the entire county of Madison.”

Snopek also said that announcements of both PSA’s involvement with the city of Madison and regarding his own projects would be available to the public within the next two months.

“We are exploring several options but no announcement yet,” said city of Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler. “We are speaking with Snopek and looking at purchasing more property.”

If the city of Madison were to purchase additional land for recreational usage, it would be the fourth property under the ownership of the city for recreation. Currently the city has Strawberry Patch Park, Simmons Arboretum and Liberty Park. Liberty has volleyball courts, paved walking trails, a cross-country track and a playground that is under construction and baseball and soccer fields. The two other Madison parks have what is called passive recreation or walking/jogging trails, picnic areas and some playground arrangements.

The new property Boothe and other Madison officials are in search of would be used for more of the same type of amenities, found at Liberty Park, according to Boothe.

“We are looking for more property for sport and activity fields as well as for some passive recreation and we are also looking into the possibility of a dog park,” Boothe said.

While negotiations and decision making continue there is one thing that’s for sure, some sort of land will be purchased and the citizens of Madison will have more opportunities to be active.