Brookhaven residents voiced their concerns about the county’s new baseball complex at a recent community meeting, and were again told that the new ballpark will be for all children.

A.L. Lott League Director Roy Smith, Ward 1 Alderman Randy Bates, Lincoln Civic Center Manager Quinn Jordan and McNair Smith, who serves on the baseball complex committee, spoke at Thursday’s event at the Civic Center.

Jordan showed those who attended an illustrated rendering of the new complex as well as a hierarchical map of the chain of command for the complex’s governance.

“Our kids are going to be able to hold their heads up high when they walk out on these fields,” Jordan said.

Jordan and McNair Smith both reassured attendees that the new complex would be for the entire community in Brookhaven, trying to ease concerns that the complex would leave out black children in the city.

Among those asking questions of the speakers were Bernetta Character, NAACP president, and Josie Hightower. They were concerned with the kind of criteria that would be used to determine who would get scholarships. They also asked  whether or not the scholarship foundation was prepared to pay for a large number of children who may not have the funds to participate in league play at the complex. Officials hope to include a foundation which would help counter any fees needed to play for low-income children.

Jordan replied that committees are still being built therefore a lot of that has not been figured out.

After saying that it would be harder for kids who now ride their bikes to the A.L. Lott fields to use the same mode of transportation to the new complex, Roy Smith said he is advocating for city money to be used on community projects instead.

“I’m not asking them to spend money at A.L. Lott. I’m asking them to spend money in our community,” Roy Smith said.

To these suggestions McNair Smith said that the need for more community programs in the city was a city problem that needed to be taken to the mayor.

“We need to hold our elected officials accountable to the [issues] of the black community,” McNair Smith said, also suggesting that the community needs a teen center and a swimming pool in the city.