Pickleball in Lincoln Park or Solstice Park? 3 updates
(WSB photo, October 1st)
Updates today in the ongoing issue of Seattle Parks canceling its plan to add pickleball stripes to three Solstice Park tennis courts and instead deciding to turn a former Lincoln Park tennis-court area (photo above) into pickleball courts:
TIMING: The plan to resurface Solstice Park courts – which is what brought up the potential for pickleball – has been delayed. Parks tells us that the resurfacing, recently considered “imminent,” is now not going to happen until spring/summer of next year: “The contractor got delayed because of supplies that did not come in time and now the weather is too wet and temperatures too cool to resurface the courts. This project will be the first one scheduled when the appropriate weather returns.” (Different material than the Lincoln Park plan, which is described as an “asphalt overlay.”)
MONEY: Questions persisted even after Parks clarified that the $140,000 cost of converting the Lincoln Park site is coming from an Associated Recreation Council grant. We asked for more details; Parks says the money was not specifically earmarked for this: “This project is being funded with a portion of a $400,000 grant from the Associated Recreation Council, given to the department last spring. There were no restrictions on where we could spend the funds. SPR decided to spend a portion of them on pickleball expansion, and the rest toward recreation programs and services.”
LINCOLN PARK LIGHTING? Funding may get in the way of that, Parks added: “We are still exploring the possibility of adding lights, but it may end up being cost prohibitive for the time being and may need to be added when future funding can be secured. Funding the lights out of the same grant would mean reducing funding to one of the other promised investments.”
As noted here yesterday, the Lincoln Park pickleball plan now has a page on the Parks website.
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