Asphalt was the primary topic of discussion among county commissioners at their meeting this week, as pickleball courts and resurfacing of county roads brought on spirited exchanges.
Baldwin County Manager Carlos Tobar reported to the board of commissioners Tuesday night that bids for total reconstruction of the tennis and pickleball courts were opened last week, and the lowest of the two submitted was approximately $657,500. The other was almost $100,000 higher.
Tobar noted that soil samples revealed what he termed ‘slush’ under the surface of the property at Walter B. Williams Park off Highways 212 and 22. He said that added significantly to the bid.
“Just in demolition cost on this, you’re looking at over $162,000,” he read from the bid, “just to remove the slush,” Tobar said he had an alternative. “My recommendation is rejecting these bids and building pickleball courts north of the Aquatic Center,” he said, pointing out preliminary planning called for 20 new courts.
Following a brief discussion about the timeline of the design of the new courts and the bid process, a motion was made and seconded to reject the proposals. District 3 Commissioner Sammy Hall took issue with the plan to abandon the current courts.
“About three or four months ago we were talking about resurfacing these for $80,000,” he said. “Now, it is interesting to me that those courts have been there for 40 years or more, and they’ve been played on. But in only the last 10 years they have become mush. I don’t understand that. We haven’t had any kind of earthquake or anything to change the foundation.”
Hall said it didn’t make sense to him that the existing courts couldn’t be repaired with asphalt.
District 4 commissioner Henry Craig disagreed with Hall’s assessment, indicating he was familiar with the condition of the courts and their history.
“I’m aware of the courts being resurfaced twice since I’ve been a commissioner because water comes through the surface because it’s below the pond,” he said. “Now, when you talk to an engineer, he’d quickly say, ‘Why would you build it below a pond?’
“And,” Craig continued, “we can continue to resurface that facility for however many years, every two years or so. But at the same time, we’ve never had activity at that spot like we’ve had with pickleballers.”
A motion to reject the bid proposals was unanimously approved, as was a motion to approve a contract with an engineer to complete a design for the pickleball courts, though Hall stated he was voting only to “explore” the option of building the new courts.
Near the end of the meeting, District 2 Commissioner Kendrick Butts questioned how soon road resurfacing could start once a collection of the new one-cent T-SPLOST begins on April 1.
Tobar stated the list was being finalized, and Assistant County Manager and Finance Director Dawn Hudson explained that revenue from that first month would not be realized by the county until the end of May. She speculated that resurfacing will likely start in late summer.
Hall questioned the process of compiling a list used to prioritize resurfacing. He stated that he understood many roads in the county need paving and are short with just a few residences.
“But those shouldn’t come first,” he contended. “We need to have our main thoroughfares, so to speak, that are in worse shape, done first because that’s where the most people travel,” Hall said. “And, I would think we as commissioners have some knowledge of where those are, and we need to have some input.”
Tobar responded by saying commissioners would have the list before any requests for bids went out.
Butts, though, had a different opinion than Hall.
“I don’t agree with what Commissioner Hall was saying,” he interjected. “People that live on short roads and have been there 40 to 50 years deserve to have roads to ride on like other Baldwin County residents.”
Hall acknowledged Butts’ position but reiterated his view.
“You want people to see what we are doing, so they will vote for the T-SPLOST the next time,” Hall said.
“We’ve got five years of paving roads before another T-SPLOST comes up, and I think the citizens are going to be satisfied with the roads they see paved,” Butts responded.