Pickleballers ask to expand for the summer

Local pickleball players requested additional support from the City of Sundance last week. Representing the large group of passionate picklers, Susan Worthington made three requests for the coming summer season.

The council did not consider the first two requests to be any problem. The old tennis courts near the schools will receive their own trash can for use by pickleball players and kids at the skate park, and the city will spend $720 to provide a portapotty over the next three months for use by the same two groups.

Mayor Paul Brooks called the first request a “no brainer”. On the second request, Council Member Callie Hilty asked if the pickleball group would be willing to contribute to the portapotty, but Worthington pointed out that it would also serve the kids in the skate park and playground; the council decided to move ahead with fully funding the request.

The third request, however, was tabled for further investigation.

Worthington explained that there are somewhere around 25 to 30 pickleball players, and they will soon be forming an official club. Though the group has applied for a grant to create dedicated pickleball courts, Worthington said that won’t solve the problem of overcrowding this summer.

She asked if it would be possible in the meantime to move the fence between the courts and skate park approximately six feet, as this would allow an expansion from two courts to four. It would also require a couple of the skate park structures to be moved.

“If you have 20 people playing and only two courts, that’s a lot of standing around,” she said.

However, Public Works Director Mac Erickson expressed concern that this would be fairly costly for the sake of a single summer, because the fence is set in asphalt. Council Member Randy Stevenson also worried that it would disrupt use of the skate park, which is designed to be a course rather than individual features.

“It won’t work as intended – think of a race course and you move it,” he said, commenting that the city’s kids need something to do in the summer.

The council asked Erickson to look into the matter and provide a price estimate to move the fence and his opinion on the feasibility. In the meantime, the question was tabled until next month.