By EMILY SPARACINO / Staff Writer

CHELSEA – Payment plans and construction updates for capital projects in Chelsea, particularly the new sports complex, comprised more than 20 minutes of the City Council’s discussion at a pre-council meeting Jan. 19.

After sharing the city’s latest rating of AA by Standard & Poor’s Rating Services, Mayor Earl Niven reviewed the city’s debt and financial plans with council members.

“We are borrowing $2 million,” Niven said. “This will allow us to complete the ball park without depleting our funds on hand. We want to have a good balance to where our government could continue without worrying about revenue.”

Niven said the city’s payments would extend to 2030, when the debt would be paid off.

The sports complex likely will cost between $1.5 million and $2 million, he said.

Niven said the council has talked about naming the road stretching from the parkway to the ball field Grand Slam Drive, and the road coming in, Sports Highland Parkway or Sports Mountain Parkway, pending no other roads in the 911 call area have the same names.

Project engineer Keith Hager said work to widen Shelby County 11 and add a turn lane near the complex site is complete except for striping, and the inspection was successful.

“Everything is in real good shape,” Hager said.

Future construction traffic connected to a new subdivision being developed near the complex will not use the main entrance road once the pavement is installed, he added.

Hager said he would present a right-of-way plat to the Chelsea Planning Commission this month for approval.

“This has always been planned,” he said. “We’re just getting our paperwork straight.”

The next planning commission meeting will be held Jan. 25 at 6 p.m.

Regarding the Chelsea Community Center, which opened in late October, Niven listed attendance numbers from the previous three months: November, 1,314; December, 1,762; and January, 2,291.