Baldwin County pickleball enthusiasts may have received on Monday what they’ve been seeking for the past year when the Board of Commissioners voted unanimously to accept a bid for the construction of 20 new courts.
Commissioners voted at a called meeting to award a contract to Dyer Construction for $1,302,732 to build the new courts dedicated to pickleball play only. The new courts will be built adjacent to the new water park under construction on Highway 22 at the county recreation complex.
The board also voted to award a contract to Georgia Power for $241,142.97 to provide lighting for the courts.
The funds for the two contracts will come from a grant Baldwin County received from the state via the Governor’s Office of Planning and Budget (OPB) for $2,199,371, with the balance of $655,496 to be used for restrooms for the pickleball court area and lighting for youth baseball fields at the complex. The money is part of COVID-19 funds the federal government authorized through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) as a result of the pandemic to assist local governments in economic efforts.
County Manager Carlos Tobar told the commissioners that county staff would begin the process of bid advertisements for the restroom facilities and lights for the youth baseball fields immediately following the meeting.
The $2.2 million grant originally was awarded to the county to build a park at the Government Building on North Columbia Street, but when bids for the pickleball courts came in significantly higher than anticipated in August, county officials began exploring redirection of those funds. Before that change in direction, SPLOST funds were anticipated to be used for the new pickleball courts.
Before the vote, grant writer Haly Hicks explained to commissioners the approach utilized in convincing the state to approve the shift in the grant funds. She said she and her team were able to successfully answer the questions of the state regarding the need for the change.
“The overall goal is still to provide people with opportunities to participate in recreational activities,” Hicks said, regardless of which location is used. “We had conversations about whether or not we wanted the government park here to be a place for recreational opportunities or just keeping it a place to conduct government activities.”
Hicks said the other key reason for the change is the need for additional courts due to a significant increase in play, locally.
“In the original park proposal, it did have pickleball courts in the park,” she pointed out.
“We wanted to change that originally. The government park is not large enough to accommodate 20 pickleball courts.
“We talked about pickleball is on the rise, even with the damaged courts we have now,” Hicks told the commissioners. “We anticipate that to continue to grow. We talked about how we would be able to serve more people with funding from OPB to add these pickleball courts than we would if we just kept the park here.”
Approximately 30 members of the local pickleball community were on hand for the meeting, and nine signed up to address the commissioners.
Among them was Simone Brown, who energized the crowd with her remarks.
She acknowledged it took a little convincing to get her on the court.
“Once I got out there, I fell in love with pickleball. I love it. I’m addicted,” Brown declared. “When I started playing in July, I weighed 245 pounds. Now I weigh 220 pounds,” she added, drawing applause from the audience.
District 4 commissioner Henry Craig expressed his support for the project.
“You’ve heard me talk about live, work, play is the way successful counties are moving forward,” he began. “This is the play part. We need to stop thinking about yesterday and start thinking about tomorrow. This is what people are doing today.
This is what people are going to be doing tomorrow.”
Tobar stated that Dyer Construction could begin work as soon as necessary paperwork, including a certificate of appropriate insurance, is submitted.
The Board of Commissioners will ratify the contracts at its Nov. 5 meeting, he said.