The Pickleball/Tennis courts are open for public play! With the added improvements being made to our Little League field getting all new fencing, it's a great upgrade to our City Park.
We will have organized play for Pickleball with the following schedule:
Mon., Wed., Fri. - 8:00 AM - 10:00, Tues., Thur. - 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM and Sat. morning @ 9:00 AM.
Pickleball nets, provided by the Pickleball group, will remain up for public use. The courts are open for public play at all other times. Please roll the pickleball nets to the side when playing tennis or basketball. Some of the pickleball players are willing to volunteer their time to teach beginners the basics of pickleball right after organized play on Mon. and Wed. We have some extra paddles and balls that will be used. Please come join in the fun, it's a great outdoor activity for all ages and great family fun!
Would like to touch on a little history of the journey to achieve these park improvements. The Recreation only grant was written by Barbara Beverly of Sparks, NV., free of charge, and received in June 2019.
Council member Joy Markum had the vision of a community recreation bldg. that included batting cages, tennis court, pickleball and basketball courts. Through her leadership and the intense organization by Louis Sequeido, Tyler Martin and Sean Troup, working with Q&D and numerous other volunteers, brought down the old pool bldg. This donation was a savings of approximately 30K and used towards the City's match to the grant.
Fast forward, COVID hit, prices soared and there was no hope for the recreation bldg. In 2025 a small group of pickleball players inquired about the grant and learned that it needed to be utilized by the end of 2028. The group worked with Little League, and a community member for a vision to utilize the grant.
Pickleball group applied for several more grants, unfortunately unsuccessful, and started getting bids to redo the pickleball/tennis courts. Council member Sue Mcllray took over the grant process for the city and worked on getting bids for the Little League fencing. Community member Jessica Folchi received a quote for playground equipment. Unfortunately, all the bids for the three entities exceeded the grant funds. The city had to make the decision of how to best utilize the funds and reach the most people of all ages in our community. Being the Tennis/pickleball courts are utilized by the schools for PE/Tennis lessons in the spring and fall and the availability for adults to play at least 5 months of the year, the little league that has summer play of all ages, it was decided to go with those two options. We are reaching ages in the community of 5 through 80 years of age!
We have had volunteers from both the pickleball group and the little league group to remove fencing, unwanted trees around courts and whatever else has been asked of these groups to help lower the costs. Other donations made to the Little League field by Joy Engineering (gravel), Keola Wills(spreading gravel) and the School District for bleachers. Everyone has stepped up!
We would like to recognize Sue Mcllray for her countless hours working with the state to get all the needed information to get the funds flowing and what she will have to do to finish up and finalize the process. Working with government entities is not easy! I encourage people to search for grants that may help your community! Maybe reach out to your local county supervisors, Terry LeBlanc and Sharon Dryden, to see if they have service area funds that can be utilized for playground equipment. Lastly would like to thank all the volunteers, a small community doesn't succeed without volunteers! With that said a group will be working at the courts on Friday morning at 8:00 AM to put fencing up if anyone would like to help!
Encourage everyone to get out and utilize our community park.
- Photos and story by Phyllis DeMartini
