The long-anticipated swap of the Lawrence County Sports Complexfrom the county to the town was made Tuesday.

The town approved the transfer unanimously. In return for thesports complex, the town ceded the old police department on MainStreet and the cost of half of the supplies for a new roof on thebuilding.

The county will use the refurbished police department to mergethe county’s homeland defense and civil defense offices in onelocation to improve efficiency in crisis situations.

The town board also approved a motion to begin a search for aparks director to oversee operations at the sports complex.

“I appreciate the generosity and the foresight of the board ofsupervisors in making this trade,” said Mayor Dave Nichols. “Itruly believe that the citizens of Lawrence County will be wellserved by an emergency operations center and a sports complex thatwill be better utilized with a full-time parks and recreationdirector.”

The town board retained the members of the county’s Parks Board,who will continue to supervise operations at the sports complex.The parks director will supervise the complex’s day-to-dayoperations and report to the Parks Board, which will now report tothe town.

The new board will remain separate from the existing board thatsupervises improvements and activities at Atwood Water Park.

“It was always our intent to do what was best for the city andthe county; and we believe this is the best way to do that,”Nichols said.

The board will also seek a parks ranger to handle the waterpark’s day-to-day operations.

In other matters, the town addressed zoning for the newlyannexed areas to the north and south of the old city limits.

Areas to the north that were annexed include all land betweenthe former city limits and the new Highway 27. These areas werezoned as light industrial.

To the south, areas north of Hall’s Creek have been added to thecity limits and zoned as residential.