It’s another “dead ball” on the proposed pickleball courts at Northwest Park after a long discussion between city council members and residents at Monday night’s meeting. This is really just a delay while Director of Parks and Recreation, Jack Wardell, is sent out to investigate the options available to reduce costs. Only two bids were received on the proposal to rehabilitate the tennis courts at Northwest Park with post-tension concrete, a process that is used to help reduce the impact of fractures on the surface. The high bid, from Denison-based Midwest Track and Tennis, was $364,677 and the lowest, from Badding Construction, was $278,500. Council member, Misty Boes, says Wardell had run a good race, but the price is just too much. Jerry Fleshner concurred.
Boes had done some research and found that a nearly identical project had been done by Midwest Track and Tennis in Sac City for $177,000 a couple years ago. She also reported on a recently built Cedar Falls pickleball park.
The city did have a local asphalt company that helped keep costs somewhat lower, but that price also included fencing. Boes says it may be well worth it to look for other locations, starting from scratch instead of repurposing. Rich Hartley, representing the newly formed Carroll Pickleball Association, says they completely understand the sticker shock.
He adds they are not set on the Northwest Park site and are open to other locations. There are about 35 to 40 people right now actively playing pickleball on a daily basis. Fleshner says that he has had many discussions with residents and there have been people on both sides of the idea, but basing the viability of a project on a perception of relative value to a population segment could lead them down a dangerous path. “If we said no to everything that not enough people would use, we would have no library, because only 18 percent of the population uses that. We would have no tennis courts because only 12 percent of the residents have ever used that. The skate park is the same way, and I just don’t think we can give up on this yet. All we would have are roads” Wardell was provided up to four months to bring back some options that are more affordable, would be agreeable to all parties and closer to the original $175,000 estimated.
