CORNING — Pickleball courts are coming to Corning’s Northside Park after a vote of the City Council Tuesday.
The council unanimously voted to convert one of the two tennis courts at Northside Park into four pickleball courts while leaving the other one for tennis.
During the budget process, the council wanted to resurface the tennis courts at Northside Park.
Staff presented the council with the options of reconstructing the tennis courts at Northside Park and either reconstructing or replacing tennis courts at Clark Park.
Estimates put resurfacing the courts at Northside Park at around $85,000, but those surfaces are in good condition. The Clark Park courts are in worse shape and would cost substantially more to replace.
To proceed with the bid process, staff needed to know if the council wanted to convert the tennis courts into multi-use courts, solely tennis courts or one court for tennis and one redesigned for pickleball.
Pickleball enthusiast Rosalie Henderson spoke in favor of converting the courts.
“It is really fun, and it is for all levels of play, and it is really social,” Henderson said. “You can play with two people; you can play with four people. And the best part is, I think it will bring people into the city, from Interstate-5.”
Police Chief Jeremiah Fears spoke in favor of the conversion, saying his driveway is taped off for pickleball.
Mayor Robert Snow was in favor of the change too. He said the city could monitor how people use the pickleball and tennis courts and make adjustments from there.
“If it shows over time that everybody is sitting around waiting to play pickleball and nobody is using the tennis courts, that is something that we can look at down the road,” Snow said.
On the issue of Clark Park, the council unanimously decided to take a first step towards removing the tennis courts and putting in playground equipment while converting part of the area for useful space for children.
Miller said the council needed to make a decision on the projects due to the city’s application for the available Prop. 68 capital funds. The council’s decision was a final part of the application process.
City Clerk Lisa Linnet said there would be more discussions about Clark Park at future meetings.
In other business
The council unanimously approved a one-year building consulting contract with John Fleming, a part-time building inspector for Orland.
The contract is $50 per hour for inspection services with other terms and conditions.
“I would say that we are absolutely dependent on him right now and it is a very fair price,” Miller said.
The city’s building department consists of one employee, Dan Redding. The city does not have someone to step in for Redding if he becomes sick, needs time off or goes on vacation.