UPDATE:
The Mobile County School Board agreed Monday on a proposed 99-year lease for the property next to Williamson high school, which is Harmon Thomas Park.
That means Williamson is one step closer to getting its own stadium.
There's still one more hurdle the school system needs to get through, however, and that is getting approval from the department of housing and urban development.
For more than a year, there's been a push to get Williamson its own stadium.
When the mobile county public school system started exploring options, officials found that the school was landlocked.
There was one solution though: to purchase the property next to it from the City of Mobile.
"They feel very positive that Hud will approve the project, just don't know the timeframe but we're going to take that information and continue to move forward," said MCPSS Superintendent, Chresal Threadgill.
The only thing that's prohibiting them from moving forward now is approval from Hud, who sold the property to the city in the late 1960s.
But for some Williamson alum like Prattis Williams, they're not sure what to believe.
"Because at first it was, we don't know who owns it, then it was the city, oh it's Harmon rec, now it's Hud. So every other day it's a different excuse," said Williams,
We reached out to the city for a statement; a spokesperson said in part:
"The administration’s goal is to have a proposed lease for the mobile city council to consider at a meeting in early April. The city’s legal team has also requested clarification from Hud about what requirements, if any, would be needed to change the *use of this property."
The superintendent says Hud's approval could take anywhere from a month to a year.
ORIGINAL:
On Monday, The Mobile County School Board will consider entering into “full negotiations” with the City of Mobile for the use of Harmon Park to construct a football stadium for Williamson.
The agreement would be subject to possible restrictions from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, who sold the property to the city in the late 1960’s.
That agreement stated that The Public Body [City of Mobile] agrees to develop the land in the following manner: Construction of parking lot, baseball and football fields, lighted tennis courts..” among other amenities.
On March 13, City Attorney Ricardo Woods sent a letter to Superintendent Chresal Threadgill stating that “the City of Mobile is still willing to move forward with a lease if MCPSS is interested in doing so, provided any such lease would be subject to a revision in HUD objects to the change in use of the property or prohibits the transaction.”
Williamson was scheduled to have their own stadium built this year, along with Davidson, B.C. Rain, Vigor and LeFlore, but later studies proved there was not enough room on campus.