WRIGHTSVILLE BEACH — The Town of Wrightsville Beach is continuing to pursue a six-figure grant that would fund the construction of more pickleball courts and accommodate the growing group of those using the town’s tennis courts for pickleball matches.
Katie Ryan, recreation program supervisor, informed the board of aldermen Thursday night on the status of a Parks and Recreation Trust Fund grant application for the building of five pickleball courts next to the existing tennis courts at Wrightsville Beach Park. The grants are funded by the N.C. General Assembly and managed through N.C. State Parks.
The total project cost for five new pickleball courts, and other improvements like a 10-foot multi-use path and lighting for all new and existing courts in the park, is projected to be $795,000. The PARTF grant would handle exactly half of that, with the town paying for the rest.
Pickleball was introduced to Wrightsville Beach Park in 2014, Ryan told the board, and over the years lines on three of the town’s four tennis courts have been drawn to accommodate the sport. The open play program started in 2017 and pickleball surged in popularity since then. The sport’s growing player base has at times caused friction with the tennis community, which shares courts at the park with the pickleballers, depending on the day.
The manager of Wrightsville Beach Pickleball Group, Jim Chaffins, privately raised enough money to permanently convert one of the tennis courts into four permanent pickleball courts. In August, the board of aldermen approved a request from Ryan and the pickleballers to make the conversion once all courts were resurfaced; it would give more space for the growing game and presumably allow the tennis players more claim over the three remaining courts. And it was a temporary plan: If the PARTF grant application is successful and the town is able to construct five new courts solely dedicated to pickleball, the re-striped court paid for by Chaffins and the pickleballers would be converted back to a tennis court, according to the August arrangement.
Chaffins attended the board of aldermen meeting Thursday night and stated a desire to retain the re-striped court for pickleball in the long term, not just as a temporary measure. “I know what was said, but we would definitely like to keep the four courts based upon the pure numbers of people using the facility here at Wrightsville Beach,” Chaffins told the board.
The board reminded him of the earlier arrangement: “I think we agreed that once we built these courts, we were going to go back to what we had,” said Mayor Pro Tem Hank Miller. “At the end of the day, that’s what we all said we’re going to do.”
The project costs — which include lighting, a fence, a gazebo and other amenities, in addition to the courts themselves — total around $680,000. The required contingencies of the application bring the total package to nearly $800,000. The board voted to approve moving forward with the application.
A public meeting to receive input on the project will be the next step on Jan. 26. Stakeholders like the Wrightsville Beach Foundation and Harbor Island Garden Club, which would help handle the beach’s share of the costs, are being asked for letters of support to bolster the application. The deadline for grant applications is in early May, and if successful, contracts for the new courts could be signed in October or November.
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