New Activity Center Coming Soon To Oxford

Land being cleared across the street from the Oxford Police Department for the new activities center.

The City of Oxford is always coming up with new ways to expand the growing city and a new activities center is on its way.

Situated on the cusp of Molly Bar Rd. and Price St. lies the grounds of the new Oxford Activities Center. Currently, land is being cleared of debris to make Price St. and Molly Barr Rd. two uninterrupted roads. However, the construction of the new activities center and the new road is still in the early design stages.

Seth Gaines, executive director of the Oxford Park Commission, said, “We think construction will be anywhere between 12 to 18 months.”

Oxford’s City Engineer and Public Works Director, Bart Robinson, assumes the new relocated road will be done before the end of the year and the construction for the new activities center will begin sometime in the middle of 2017. However, Robinson stated there is, “no time frame” set in stone yet. Gaines noted, “it will be a fantastic facility.”

According to Gaines, The re-vamped activities center will have new tennis courts, a fitness room, meeting rooms, a fitness counter, a walking track, two full size basketball courts and four junior courts.

The purpose of the new $7 million activities center is to serve Oxford’s booming population that has grown 18 percent since the 2010 census, making Oxford the number one growing city in Mississippi just before Starkville, which has grown 8 percent. The University of Mississippi is also in its 22nd consecutive year of rising enrollment and now has 24,250 students enrolled at the college, a 1.7 percent increase from fall of 2015.

By Wes Cooper, an intern for HottyToddy.com. For questions or comments, email hottytoddynews@gmail.com.