2/27/2022 Good evening pickleball players of Catawba County and surrounding areas. I hope you are all doing well and have been able to play a lot of pickleball recently. For those of you who don't know me, I'm a local (grew up in Catawba County) pickleball player who came to this amazing sport after 46 years of tennis...I fell in love with pickleball, gave up tennis, and now represent Catawba County as the USA Pickleball Ambassador. All that title really means is that I'm an unofficial pickleball spokesperson for Catawba County with the role of promoting and growing the sport of pickleball every chance I get. So basically it's what each of you do every time you step on the court and/or talk about the sport with others. Last year I was fortunate enough to be asked to work with Mark Seaman (Director of Recreation and Sports Tourism for Hickory) and Hani Nassar (President of the Greater Hickory Tennis Association) to help bring more pickleball courts to the City of Hickory. It is because of these two men and the City of Hickory that we have the 6 new courts at the Westmont Pickleball Facility (not an official name), the 3 new courts at Taft Broome Park (Ridgeview), and construction going on at Optimist to bring four brand new courts there. I was just lucky enough to be along for the ride during the whole process. If you have a chance to thank either of these men, or the people who serve the City of Hickory, please do so. I've talked with numerous Ambassador's from other areas (with much larger populations than Hickory) and they do not have the facilities we have or the support from their city that we do. We are very fortunate that all those involved in the process see the future of pickleball and that the City of Hickory is willing to put as many resources as they can into pickleball for our area! Here are brief updates on the various outdoor courts in the area: - Taft Broome Park (Ridgeview): There have been a few questions about the puddles on these courts that remain after it has rained. The foundation for the three courts here and the six courts at Westmont were not changed - the courts were just resurfaced and painted for pickleball. Therefore any dips or bumps that were in the tennis courts prior to resurfacing will still be there on the pickleball courts. If you haven't had a chance to play at these courts you should give them a try. Great courts with a beautiful covered picnic area right beside them. - Westmont Pickleball Facility: Not any updates on these courts, but I do want to say how incredible it is to see how many players use these courts. Thankful to Mr. Seaman and Mr. Nassar in their push to get us 6 courts there instead of the 2 courts that were originally planned for the location. Also want to say a huge thank you again to all of you who donated close to a total of $6000 on the GoFundMe page to help get those 6 courts. It really went a long way in demonstrating pickleball players' willingness to work in a private/public partnership with the City of Hickory! - Optimist Park: As you can see from the attached photograph, a lot of work is being put into solving the drainage problem that has plagued these four courts for a while now. As you can tell, the City of Hickory is rebuilding the entire court area and these four courts (including the foundation) will be brand new. Currently the plan is for the retaining wall to be completed by the end of April (weather permitting) with construction on the brand new pickleball courts to start in May. - Conover City Park: There are two lighted pickleball courts at this facility and a fence was put on the other side of the courts a few months ago (if you weren't aware, for a long time there wasn't a fence on the side of the courts where the walkway is). - Westside/Jaycee Park (Newton): There are four lighted pickleball courts at this facility. Even though there are four courts, only 2 portable nets were supplied for them. The last time I was there one net was in horrible shape and the second one was in really bad shape. It doesn't appear that kind of damage would have been caused by a pickleball or pickleball player. During the Summer I hope to meet with the City of Newton to see what options they may have in mind for nets on all of these courts. It's a great facility with the best lights currently in our county. Lights/Bathrooms Updates: - After the Westmont Pickleball Facility was created, many players soon started asking about restrooms and lights at that location. While I shared their enthusiasm and desire to have these amenities, I realized that the City of Hickory, within a 4 month period, had put a great deal of funds into creating 9 brand new pickleball courts for our pickleball family. They had also committed the resources to fixing the drainage problem at Optimist and rebuilding those courts from the foundation up. So at that point I didn't feel comfortable asking for anything else from the City of Hickory and Mr. Seaman for the pickleball community. But I did make sure they knew that these were amenities we would like in the future. - In recent conversations with Mr. Seaman, lights and restrooms at the Westmont Pickleball Facility are still on his "to do list." With the generous amount of money that has been put into pickleball over the last year, and the state of the economy, there is obviously not an endless supply of funds available right now for those projects. - He did say that if pickleball players were willing to enter into a private/public partnership with the City of Hickory (basically the pickleball community working in collaboration, discussion wise and financially, with the City of Hickory) on the projects, these additions could happen quicker. He feels that if the City of Hickory sees pickleball players willing to help, they are more likely to invest in the projects that will benefit our pickleball family. - He was curious as to whether pickleball players in the area would create some sort of fundraiser event(s), or fundraiser in general, to help raise some of the money for these two projects? The Greater Hickory Tennis Association did this to help contribute to the building/lighting of the tennis courts at Hickory City Park. If you have any ideas and/or experience in regards to fundraisers that can be used to help fund the lighting and/or restrooms at our courts I'd love to hear them and help spread the word! - He also said he was beyond impressed by the generosity of all the pickleball players when we had the private/public partnership to raise money to help convert the Westmont courts into six pickleball courts instead of the two that were planned for Westmont. I think we can all agree that the effort and donations to help create six courts at Westmont instead of just two were well worth it. After seeing how many players use these courts at one time, I just can't imagine there only being two pickleball courts there! - While Mr. Seaman said that the lights/restrooms are definitely in future plans for Westmont, putting lights up at the Optimist courts may occur first since those courts will be entirely brand new and there are bathrooms already there. He plans on getting quotes on the lights there soon to see what type of money it will cost to light the Optimist courts. Again, I feel we are just unbelievably fortunate to have people in charge who are willing to listen to our pickleball needs/wants and take them seriously. In the last year they have put forth so much effort and money to help meet the needs of our pickleball community! Other Bits of Information: - For those of you who don't know, I set up an account with Pickleball Central so that you can get 5% off almost anything you order from them (either online or over the phone). The code is: CRFoothillsPA - If you're ever traveling somewhere and want to know where the pickleball courts are in that area, you can use the Places 2 Play website. I apologize for the long email but wanted to make sure I updated you on all the pickleball happenings in our area! If you ever have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me! Have a fantastic week!