Let's Make Some Noise - Easy Facility Solution

Oct 3, 20233 min read

October 3, 2023

Dear PEPA members,

Your club is launching another campaign to get the City to build a pickleball facility. Hey! This could be fun (again)!

Fall 2023 Postcard Campaign to City Council

You may remember the campaigns in the summer of 2022, when our community turned out in big numbers, dare I say "droves," and we succeeded in getting eight PB courts into the Mary Francis Keisling Park plan, plus dedicated courts at Memorial Park!

Those pickleball courts are part of the Master Plans, BUT where do we go from here??

The City is planning to put together a bond proposal, to be sent to voters NEXT YEAR. If approved, there are specifications, the bid process, funding, construction scheduling ... these projects are at least three to five years down the road. Some of the 2012 approved bond projects are just now being completed, 11 years after voter approval.

So -

One option would be to convert the tennis courts at Grandview Park from two tennis multi-use to six dedicated pickleball courts with permanent pickleball nets and paint.

Advantages of converting Grandview:

This option is much less expensive project with severely shorter time line: repainting the lines and installing nets could be done within a few weeks. FAST AND CHEAP
Grandview has generous parking, shade structures plus mature trees, and is centrally located. It is a lovely park.
The courts have handicap accessibility (this one is for you Terry and all our other wheelchair players).
Once the new gym is open, which is scheduled for next month, the facility would boast 6 outdoor AND 3 indoor pickleball courts.
Tennis traffic at this park is light, and players still have access to courts at Sunrise Park, a few miles to the north, and 5 courts at Memorial Park a few miles to the south.

With a facility, we could separate play by levels and hold events.

Our PEPA Volunteers will be taking postcards (top of this story) to venues. Please sign a postcard and include your address and zip code. The cards will be sorted and given to the appropriate City Council Representative and the Mayor.

We are also planning a trip to Call to the Public. The last one we did in April had a fabulous turnout - we occupied about 2/3's of the seating in City Council Chamber in the middle of a work day; that is pretty darn good. When our group got up to leave you could feel a vacuum in the room ...

Let's make some noise!

Some of our advanced players show their less serious side at the Ruidoso Oktoberfest, after the PB fundraiser.

East Siders - Beast Has Added Days

The Beast is now offering pickleball Tu Th and Fri, and is planning to offer one Saturday per month for pickleball - check with the gym as to when those Saturdays will be.

The gym held its first pickleball tournament and they were thrilled with the candy haul for their Fall Festival. Said Director Vic Cordts, "I was hoping for 20 pounds but the tournament but got 60. We want to do an Easter tournament in the spring."

Newly Reopened Gym - San Juan

Omar from Chamizal will be the new director, and he is taking requests for pickleball time slots. We have a poll running on Facebook, The Official Pickleball El Paso, and the 915 sites. If you would like to submit a suggestion you can email pickleballEP@gmail.com This is a smaller gym that will only be open Mon - Fri noon to 8PM. The official open date has not yet been announced, but they are hoping to hold a candy tournament before Halloween.