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 at all the lines that are painted there.” Councilman Mike Dryden questioned if Mayor Deb Dion found any additional information from the U.
S. Tennis Association regarding the use of tennis courts as pickleball courts. “I heard this too, that if we make anything a pickleball court, it destroys our relationship with the U.
S. Tennis Association,” Dion said. “But when I go online, they show you how to turn a court into a pickleball court and they say you can work together with pickleball players.
” For the group in attendance at Wednesday’s FUPR Committee meeting pickleball is simply a hobby sport, as they do not have — nor intend to create at this time — a league, association or official schedule of games. “There’s nothing formal in what we’re doing,” Merrill said, noting the cost for painting courts would fall on them as individuals. “We could shoulder the cost for the paint.
” The group also requested that the City of Glendive pitch in some funds to purchase two roll-away pickleball nets that would allow easy set up and tear down, ultimately permitting both pickleball and tennis players to utilize the courts when desired. Each roll-away net is expected to cost around $400. Linda Cunningham, another local resident who enjoys playing pickleball, explained she hears from visiting players they want to play while they are in town, but they currently either have to bring their own net or know someone they could borrow one from.
“There are a lot of people who want to play, but they either don’t have a net or there are no courts,” Cunningham said. After hearing the rationale behind their request, Councilman Rhett Coon expressed his approval of the proposal, adding he believes the City of Glendive can foot the bill for two roll-away nets that will remain at the Lloyd Square Park tennis complex. “Echoing the information that the the mayor and Steve found after two years of this, if we were at the council meeting, I would make a motion to let them paint lines on the .
.. court in coordination with public works,” Coon said.
Agreeing the aforementioned proposition is a good temporary option for local pickleball players to have a space to play, Councilman Jason Stuart noted he would encourage the city to consider pursuing the development of dedicated pickleball courts in the future. He added there are different underused facilities throughout the city such as basketball courts that could be redeveloped and used more often by pickleball players. “Temporary solutions are great so people can play, but I wouldn’t want us to lose sight of a longer term vision of having a dedicated space where pickleball can be played all the time without conflict,” Stuart said.
“To me, this all seems manageable,” Dion noted. “There probably will be a couple of people in town who will complain about this, but I guess they can pick a number and stand in line with the rest of them.” The Glendive City Council is scheduled to vote on the pickleball group’s proposition during its meeting on Tuesday, July 16 at 7 p.
m..
