After making requests to the city of Glendive over the last couple of years, pickleball enthusiasts — local or visiting — will have a couple of permanent outdoor courts to play on in the coming months. A group of local pickleball players approached the Finance, Utilities, Property, Recreation Committee of the Glendive City Council during its meeting on Wednesday to once again make a request to paint two permanent pickleball courts on one of the four tennis courts in Lloyd Square Park. Speaking on behalf of the group of four, local resident Steve Merrill explained their original request a couple of years ago was to paint lines for two pickleball courts on two of the Lloyd Square Park tennis courts free of charge to the city.
He added they planned to use the already installed tennis nets even though the height slightly differs from pickleball nets. “At that time, the tennis people didn’t like to hear that because they wanted it to be exclusively tennis,” Merrill said. However, Merrill told the committee he reached out to the executive vice president of the Montana High School Association to ask questions about the relationship between tennis and pickleball courts, who explained MHSA “would never deny (Glendive) a divisional or state tournament because you had multiple lines on the court.
” “Our thought at that time, and I think still, is you don’t necessarily have to have a dedicated court for pickleball,” Merrill said. “Go to the high school gym and look a.