White County officials hope to have design and construction plans for facilities to be built at Yonah Preserve ready for approval by December.
The commission met Monday with John Stover of the engineering firm Carter and Sloope and Kevin Hamby of Hamby Management, the Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax fund manager for the county.
The roughly $5 million project calls for 4 lighted ball fields, playground equipment and other work.
Commissioners would like to have plans completed, out for bid and ready to approve by December.
"We're hearing the excitement in the community," Commission Chairman Travis Turner said. "We're excited about it, and what an awesome opportunity for the people to talk about the new complex around Christmas dinner."
There are several aspects of the plans, including permitting, that must be completed, but commissioners are pushing for work to get underway by the first of next year.
Walking and biking trails have already been constructed in the preserve, but several parts of them sustained damage from Tropical Storm Irma.
Preserve Trail Project Coordinator Clark Neal of the Southern Off-Road Bicycle Association said repairs are going to take some work.
"There's probably several hundred trees down across the property itself, I've seen. We have a number of trees, probably 40 to 50 trees, down actually on the constructed trails already that will need to be removed. They have done some damage to the existing completed constructed trails. That will need to be repaired after we get the trees removed," Neal said.
County officials are expected to include tree removal on the trails as part of a contract for tree removal work on county roads.
