A downtown park dedicated to two former leaders known for their efforts in promoting racial unity in Mobile has found adoptive parents in a local fraternity, Mayor Sam Jones announced at this week’s regular pre-meeting of the Mobile City Council.

The Rho Alpha chapter of Omega Psi Phi will assume partial responsibility for the nearly $800,000, one-third acre Unity Point Park triangle nestled between St. Anthony Street, Spring Hill Avenue and Broad Street.

The Mobile City Council yesterday unanimously approved another $21,364 for benches, garbage cans and other furnishings at the park. MDS construction will complete the work.

The city did not originally have plans to put benches or other furnishings that might invite Mobile’s homeless to the park, but because of the recent adoption Jones says the plans have changed.

“In our initial plan we didn’t realize how many people walk that area on a daily basis,” Jones said. “People also intend to use the park as a place to eat on their lunch breaks.”

Jones said Omega Psi Phi’s adoption of the park is unique because of a few pledges the group has made that go beyond the average promise. Beyond covering the costs for professional maintenance and landscaping, which Jones noted is quite an undertaking, he said the group would also maintain and watch the park with a close eye since the fraternity’s headquarters are just down the street.

There’s an old dilapidated building between Omega Psi Phi’s headquarters on Broad Street and Unity Point Park that will be torn down soon, according to Jones.

“Once that’s torn down, they’ll be able to see the park from their building,” Jones said.

Bruce Reese, the Basileus, or president, of the local Omega Psi Phi chapter said his organization originally thought providing this community service was the right thing to do because of their office’s proximity to the park. From there, he said, things took off through the city’s parks division and Keep Mobile Beautiful.

“Seeing that the park was in close proximity we thought it would be good to provide a community service in keeping up the park,” Reese said. “We’ll go over there and pick up litter, do our best to report any unlawful activity and just keep an overall eye on the park.”

Other duties the fraternity will oversee include cleaning the park after Mardi Gras parades and reporting lighting and fountain problems in addition to monthly grounds maintenance.

Reese said once his fraternity expressed interest in the adoption and asked permission, he worked with Bob Haskins of Keep Mobile Beautiful to iron out any creases in the agreement.

Haskins calls the agreement “very rare.”

“It’s an exciting concept that an organization like a fraternity would help with a city park,” Haskins said. “This is the first major park adoption we’ve had.”

Haskins said the Fraternity will mow and edge the grass at the park on the fourth weekend of every month starting at the end of November.

“Otherwise the parks department would maintain it completely,” Haskins said. “But because so many members (of Omega Psi Phi) are active in the community, they agreed to maintain it. Everybody wins.”

The park, which features statues of leading Mobile civil rights activist John LeFlore and former Mayor Joseph Langan received the council’s seal of approval with a 6-0 vote in February of this year. District 2 councilman William Carroll abstained from the vote because of business ties he shares with one of the parks contractors.

The money to fund the park’s construction came from three different places. The first was Mayor Jones’ discretionary fund and the second was the city’s Tax Increment Financing, or TIF fund.

TIF funds are used as a method of publicly financing redevelopment and community improvement projects in blighted areas through an expected property tax increase as a result of the redevelopment.

Mobile’s TIF fund grows through tax revenues that were frozen at the implementation of the TIF fund in 1993. When any property tax increases take place during the life of the TIF that money is placed in the TIF fund instead of its previously set aside purpose, like funding for schools or parks in Mobile’s case.

Mobile’s TIF is set to expire in 2023. Last year, the fund was projected to have a balance of $2,888,325.94, according to documents provided by city finance director Barbara Malkove.

Former Mayor Mike Dow also spent $101,000 on the project during his tenure in office.