Photo: Outside the entrance to the DeSoto County Agri-Education Center, under construction off Starlanding Road in Southaven. (Bob Bakken/desotocountynews.com)
Sometime in May, the current construction activity at the DeSoto County Agri-Education Center on Starlanding Road will turn into another type of activity, as activities start using the facility.
The center, which will be home for a wide range of events and activities, all geared toward education, is in the final phases of completion. The complex, totaling 200 acres in size, is being completed at a cost of $19 million, said Supervisor Lee Caldwell, who last week took DeSoto County News on a tour of the center.
Caldwell said the Agri-Education Center comes without an added cost to taxpayers, money which the county has saved over time to cover the price tag.
“We did not do a bond for this,” Caldwell said. “We saved money for this and so when it’s done, it’s paid for. This is phase one, if this is really successful, there are plans for growth. We have written lots of grants and there are matches for that.”
The arena will have room for 2,000 permanent seats, good for horse shows, rodeos, cattle shows, sheep, goats, rabbits and all kinds of animal shows, tractor pulls, revivals, square dancing and more. Two adjacent outdoor arenas are available when the indoor arena is in use or not required.
Visitors will also find outside a pond with a walking trail Caldwell said is 3.2 miles in length, good for a five-kilometer running event, for instance, or an area with a pier good to sit and enjoy the pond scenery. Nearby, an emergency shelter/safe room is planned.
Inside, offices for the MSU Extension Service, Soil and Water Conservation, Natural Resources Conservation, and 4-H will move from their current Hernando location to the Agri-Education Center, along with offices for the center itself.
“It’s like what we have now in Hernando, but now we have added the arena, the ag staff, they’re all moving in and we are going to make their current location a crisis center,” Caldwell said.
There will also be several rooms available for meetings and classrooms, and Caldwell adds a variety of classes may take place inside.
“You can do robotics classes, sewing and different classes here,” Caldwell said. “There’s a big storage area where you have big carts with your sewing machines on, be able to pull them out and have chairs and tables set up. We have a lot of technology in the building, a lot of IT.”
Caldwell expected a demand for cooking classes may also occur at the center, especially post-pandemic after residents learned there was a need to be more self-sustaining.
“They may have three chickens in their backyard, so the question becomes, ‘how do I take care of them?’” said Caldwell. “They want to grow their own vegetables. So, that’s what we have. We have the Extension Service here which is a well-kept secret that we don’t want to be a secret anymore and we want them to be here for the community, to teach classes. Everything we do is going to be about education.”
Larger events that may need recreational vehicle parking will have that area available and the center will also work with the National Guard Armory being built nearby when needed for additional parking space or the Guard needs an area to conduct drills. The RV lot will also be available for rent. “We’re just open to any activities,” Caldwell said.
The land for the Agri-Education Center is actually near where a closed temporary landfill sat. The building is not built on the land, but Caldwell said residents were promised a park when the landfill was closed.
“Twenty-five years ago it was talked about as being a park and making a ballfield here,” she said. “But then they discovered the landfill, and so the land just sat. But the community was asked that it be a temporary landfill and when the landfill was closed we would make a park. So today, we are going to have that park. Promises made, promises kept.”
Access is also being improved through the widening of Starlanding Road to four lanes and a road being cut to provide access to Highway 51.
The DeSoto County Agri-Education Center is expected to fill a need and be the center of a variety of activities as it opens and grows. Caldwell is looking forward to seeing what the future holds.
“We had a study done by Mississippi State several years ago to see what the sweet spot was for us. This is going to meet that need,” Caldwell said. “There are things that we grew up with that are so special. This is right in the heart of our county. We would really like this to be a nice, safe place for people to come together.”