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Editor, News-Register:
Four months ago, The Intelligencer reported that Wheeling City Council awarded a contract for $71,000 to fund eight "new" pickleball courts at the Patterson Sports Complex. Councilman (Dave) Palmer told reporter Eric Ayers at the time that the courts "should be completed and ready this coming spring" to "welcome pickleball players from outside the area for tournament play." It's now May and as of this writing, zero work has commenced.
As a longtime player who considers Patterson my home court, I was initially hopeful about the project. But the fact that the city had allocated only $71,000 for eight new courts had me concerned. For perspective, a few years ago, a local friend spent $50,000 to construct just two courts on his property.
It's now being reported that the winning bid, awarded to Recreation Resource USA of Kennett Square, Pa., failed to include any provision for the resurfacing and paving of the four existing courts.
So a new RFP had to be written for this aspect of the project and must now go through its own two readings before Council.
What remains a concern to me even with this new RFP, is that it calls for milling down of the existing surfaces only 2 inches before application of a new surface.
This, despite the fact that there are scores of sunken areas and cracks spanning all four courts deeper than 2 inches.
All of this sadly brings to mind the city's 2023 effort to convert the Edgington Lane playground into four pickleball courts. There, among other things, court lines were painted on an angle that dangerously placed one of the four courts a mere 4 inches away from a sideline fence instead of the standard minimum 5-foot clearance. But instead of just correcting the angle and keeping the four courts, the repaint job completely eliminated two courts.
And yet an injury hazard still remains because the sideline of one of those remaining two courts is now up against a fixed steel bench.
It's embarrassing watching smaller cities and communities around Wheeling opening brand new, first-rate pickleball courts all the while Wheeling struggles to open a single court done right.
Diana Mey
Wheeling