A called meeting of three members of the Baldwin County Board of Commissioners has led to a decision that could resolve the issues surrounding the condition of the tennis and pickleball courts at the Walter B. Williams Recreation Park.
Commission Chairman Johnny Westmoreland and district commissioners/recreation committee members Emily Davis and Kendrick Butts met last week with staff members and several pickleball players to discuss the problems with the two sets of courts.
County Manager Carlos Tobar, Recreation Director Traci Bowden, and County Engineer Brian Wood were present, as were pickleball enthusiasts Milledgeville Pickleball Club (MPC) President Jeff Moore, Steve Franks, Stephanie Spivey, Sherrill Jones, and Dave Morris.
Westmoreland, at a previous meeting, requested that the board’s recreation committee meet with pickleball players to review the situation and try to come up with a solution.
Tobar said the result of the meeting was a tentative agreement for the county to utilize Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax (SPLOST) funds for the reconstruction and resurfacing of the courts, which currently consist of four tennis and eight pickleball courts. Two of the tennis courts have overlays now for pickleball play and will be converted for that sport only, leaving two tennis courts.
According to the plans, pickleball players will have 20 dedicated courts. The eight existing courts are lighted, while those for tennis play are not. Those same plans call for work to take place on both sets of courts at the same time, meaning halt of play at the recreation complex temporarily.
Tobar said he was given a clear directive.
“I received direction to assemble a bid package to reconstruct the courts, place a proper base, extend fencing on the unlighted section to accommodate two tennis courts and eight pickleball courts that will have 10-foot spacing, a fence in between tennis and pickleball courts, a playing surface (on top of asphalt), striping, and so forth.”
The county manager said the plan is to proceed immediately.
“As soon as the bid package is ready, I will show it to the board of commissioners and then advertise the project,” he said. “After a three-to-four-week period, we will open the bids publicly, analyze the bids, and then place them on a board of commissioner’s agenda for contract award.
“I want to prep the bid package and advertise ASAP,” he added. “The rest is out of our hands. It will depend on when contractors are available.”
Westmoreland confirmed that Tobar was directed to assemble a bid package as soon as possible.
“Once we get everything together, the pickleball group and the county will get together and go over the package and make sure everything is the way we wanted it,” he said. “If everybody agrees, we’re going to move forward and do both courts at the same time.
“We’d like to get it open by the latter part of March, the first part of April, so we have to move forward pretty quickly.”
Westmoreland noted that once the bid package is assembled and final plans are approved by the committee, the proposal will be brought up at a commission meeting for the full board’s review, which Davis and Butts said would be necessary. Both said the county would have to agree to the bid plans before obligating the funds.
The project will mark the second attempt by the commissioners to address the courts’ condition. The board voted in December to reconstruct the existing tennis courts at an estimated cost of $120,000, subject to the receipt of $40,000 the MPC had collected in donations. The club, however, declined to submit those funds on the basis that the expectation was for the existing pickleball courts to be repaired first.
That money was refunded before the end of the year, Moore explained in December, due to income tax consequences in connection with the donations.
The club president pointed out this past weekend no private funds are available now.
“There are no plans for the club to raise additional funds for the court resurfacing project. However,” Moore added, “there is the possibility the club would consider future fund-raising for improvements such as lighting, sunshades over the common area, seating, improving the area between the two sets of courts…” Tobar and Moore both said no precise cost figures are available now “We will know when we put the bid package together. But,” Tobar emphasized, “we really won’t know the cost until the bids are opened.”
Franks is the unofficial head of a group of players that flock to the courts Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings and was one of the original pickleball players in Baldwin County. He has witnessed the spurt in the number of pickleballers first-hand.
“From only four players in 2019 to probably 300 plus now, pickleball in Baldwin County has grown unbelievably,” he said this week. “I’m glad to see that the county recognizes that and is willing to accommodate the players with adequate courts.
“While having no public courts available during the resurfacing will be inconvenient, there are public courts available in Putnam, Jones, and Bibb County that our group can play on,” he noted. “This is a small price to pay. We’re excited about having new resurfaced courts here in Baldwin County.”