At a special meeting of the Los Banos Parks and Recreation meeting May 13, Joe Heim, Parks and Recreation Department Director, presented the commission with a proposed list of guidelines for play on the planned pickleball courts.
Heim then took the commissioners for a brief tour of a new park and the pickleball court construction and renovations at the Ag Sports Complex. He also invited commissioners to attend a symbolic check presentation at the Colorado Ballpark on May 17.
The special May meeting was requested by several commissioners, who wanted an opportunity to see some of the park improvements going on in the city. They were also given the opportunity to review pickleball court rules.
The tour included a visit to the new Sunrise Ranch Park at 2053 Martin St. near the Los Banos Junior High. The park, part of the Sunrise Ranch Development, was opened to the public the next day. It has a variety of elements for toddlers, children, teenagers and adults.
The park, funded by fees collected from the development, included slides, places to climb, a basketball half-court and a cornhole play area. The cornhole platforms, made of concrete, are a first for a Los Banos park. “With each new park,” Heim told the commissioners, “we try to incorporate something new and different.”
Heim and Parks and Recreation Administrative Coordinator Marisol Calderon then took the commissioners to the Ag Sports Complex on Mercey Springs Road, where he showed them the initial stages of the pickleball courts construction and the work being done on the two ball fields.
The fields are being completely redone, with land leveling and new sod. The north field should be ready for ball games by July and the south field shortly thereafter.
Work on the pickleball area, which will include nine courts, so far includes working with the soil and installing electrical lines, with the help of PG&E. The construction of the courts should be completed by early fall.
Earlier in the meeting, at city hall, Heim presented a draft of proposed pickleball guidelines. Included in the guidelines are the hours of operation (6 a.m. to 10 p.m.) and restrictions (only tennis shoes allowed, no food or glass containers, no skateboards of rollerblades allowed).
The guidelines also encourage “more competitive players to utilize the higher number courts (5 to 9) and the recreational players to utilize the lower number courts (1-4). This will allow, Heim said, pickleball novices to feel more comfortable and provide veteran pickleball players with the opportunity to be highly competitive.
All of the commissioners attending (Chair Jeri Blevins, Sybil Halloran, Brad Gargano and John Spevak) thanked Heim for working on the guidelines and for giving them a tour of the court complex, as well as the ball fields and Sunrise Park.
Toward the end of the meeting Heim invited commissioners to come to the Colorado Park the following Saturday, for the symbolic presentation of a $1 million check to the city.
At the May 17 event, Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria presented the oversize check to Mayor Michael Amabile, while scores of Little Leaguers in their uniforms and their parents looked on. Soria had advocated for the state funding to provide an initial boost to a proposed complete renovation of the popular park, a renovation that could cost up to $14 million.
Amabile and Heim expressed their appreciation to Soria, who then went behind the plate to catch a ceremonial first pitch from Los Banos Police Chief Ray Reyna.
Despite strong winds which brought smoke from the Nella Fire (at I-5 and Highway 152) and kicked up dust, the Little Leaguers didn’t mind the inconvenience, especially when Soria announced “free ice cream” for all the kids, which prompted a mini-stampede off the ball field to the ice cream vendor.
The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Parks and Recreation Commission with be Tuesday, July 8, at 6 p.m.