Recreation & Safety Upgrades to Jeff May Complex

Project Overview

For the past twelve years, the Lander community as well as residents of Greenwood County have enjoyed use of the facility’s fields, courts, and in particular, the 0.834 mile rubberized walking trail that surrounds the perimeter of the 25-acre complex. The complex is open free-of-charge for over 4,100 hours annually to the general public; and on most days, numerous Greenwood Country residents from all age demographics can be seen walking on the trail. Since 2020, over 30,000 people have attended athletics’ competitions and other events at the facility. The site is linked to the nearby Heritage Trail which facilitates a broad interface with other community recreational amenities. Lander’s budget supports all operational, maintenance, and policing costs for the Jeff May Complex.

For the past twelve years, the recreational trail at the Jeff May Complex has provided numerous health and wellness benefits to Greenwood County residents. The trail has helped enhance the quality of life for area residents by fostering physical activity and resident interaction in a safe outdoor environment. It has also helped to support the livability and economic vitality of Greenwood and Greenwood County. Inasmuch as the National Association of Homebuilders maintains that trails consistently remain among the top community amenities sought by prospective homeowners, the recreational trail at the Jeff May Complex has helped make Greenwood and Greenwood County an attractive place to live.

Since the opening of the complex, Lander has partnered with numerous community entities, like the Greenwood SC Chamber of Commerce, to host events at the site–such as the Flower Power 5K–that attract community residents and tourists alike to Greenwood County. Lander offers the facilities free of charge to our partners in an effort to support their activities, boost the local economy, and help our community to thrive.

After more than a decade of heavy use, the complex’s built infrastructure is showing signs of age. The rubberized trail surface is beginning to decay, the trail edges are starting to crumble, and root heave is causing cracks in the trail which have created aesthetic and safety issues. A substantial portion (-$750,000) of the proposed project’s $4.5 million dollar budget will support the demolition, root management, reconstruction, and resurfacing of the recreational trail.

Lander’s enrollment growth (up approximately 62% in the past eight years) and
expanded Athletics’ programs, combined with increased community use of the facility over time, has created parking challenges at the Jeff May Complex. In recent years, the University has augmented the site’s three original parking lots with the purchase of nearby properties where three additional gravel lots have been constructed. With this request, Lander is seeking approximately $740,000 to pave and stripe those lots (measuring 1.12 acres) and create safer, more efficient, and more accessible parking areas. On athletics’ competition days when the site’s existing parking areas are full, these new parking zones will help ensure community residents can access the recreational trail and other site amenities.

To further enhance the safety of the complex and trail, Lander will utilize project funds to upgrade and install new LED lighting throughout the site. Well-lit spaces in and around the Jeff May Complex will improve visibility, reduce the risk of accidents, and discourage vandalism and other crimes. Lander will convert existing lighting to LED technology, and install additional LED lights, in order to reduce energy consumption, generate savings, and reduce repair and maintenance costs.

Additional safety considerations for the facility include installing more security cameras throughout the site. While there are currently a few security cameras at the site, more are needed. With this project, Lander will enhance both the technology infrastructure and number of security cameras so that real-time information is shared efficiently and effectively with the Lander Police Department. The University’s current I.T. infrastructure is not sufficient to support the enhanced security presence. The project will include expanding the single-mode fiber infrastructure and building out the appropriate level of
servers, routers, and access points to create adequate bandwidth to support a full-scale mesh camera solution.

Project funds will also be used to enhance the competition surfaces at the complex. Like the trail, the play surfaces are showing signs of age. The tennis courts have not been resurfaced in the thirteen years since their construction; and the grass surface of the main competition field (where soccer, lacrosse, field hockey, and rugby are played) is worn and therefore has steep maintenance costs. With this request, Lander is seeking to resurface the site’s tennis courts and turf the main multi-purpose competition field.

Where possible, Lander will work with the city of Greenwood and Greenwood County to create shared use arrangements so that these athletic competition areas can support community recreation needs.

Lander has been working with the Greenwood Regional Tourism & Visitors Bureau for several years to promote the Jeff May Complex as an attractive site for athletics’ competitions, such as the state high school soccer championship. By turfing the field, the site can be used not just for high school championships, but it also will become an eligible site for NCAA tournaments which will bring thousands of tourists to Greenwood County to stay in our hotels and eat at our restaurants.