Pickleball devotees in Ocean City suggest seldom used artificial turf tennis courts at Ocean City Intermediate School would be an ideal and cost-effective location for new courts.
In a show of solidarity on Thursday evening, Ocean City's Pickleball players stood as their representative, Don Hepner, made an impassioned plea for City Council to make good on its promise to build permanent courts for them.
Hepner has visited City Council meetings since 2010, asking the city to accommodate a growing legion of participants in a tennis-like game.
Hepner convinced the city to provide makeshift courts inside the Ocean City Sports and Civic Center and outdoors on a rough asphalt area at the Ocean City Intermediate School.
As he promised, the game took off. More than 140 different players now participate in games in Ocean City.
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Also from City Council on Thursday:
Don't Feed Red Foxes: Council Wants to Get Tough
Council Takes Power to Clean Up Eyesore Gas Stations: Council Roundup
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Pickleball is popular with all ages, because the court is much smaller than a tennis court and doesn't require players to cover as much ground. It's played with a slower whiffle ball and a solid paddle. The game rewards strategy as much as athleticism. (The inventors of the game, as legend has it, name it for their dog, Pickles, thus the proper noun.)
Hepner's quest appeared to be over when the city budgeted $250,000 for new Pickleball courts and put out a solicitation for bids from construction companies.
But the lone bid on construction of outdoor courts in Ocean City was opened last week and came in at $604,864.75.
Fred M. Schiavone Construction Inc. of Malaga, N.J. — the contractor for two phases of Ocean City Boardwalk reconstruction and for the new Welcome Center on the Route 52 causeway — was the only bidder.
The city had asked for bids on converting part of an existing parking lot at Shelter Road and Tennessee Avenue (near the Recycling Center and Humane Society) into five Pickleball courts with fencing and a windbreak system. The specifications also asked for the bids to include the replacement of the artificial grass surface on the six tennis courts (40,000 square feet) at the Ocean City Intermediate School.
The bid breakdown (
see detail) includes $418,000 for the tennis court surface alone.
The other part of the bid included $186,874.75 for the work on the Pickleball courts at Shelter Road. Schiavone submitted an alternate bid of $29,785 to resurface and equip five Pickleball courts that exist on a roughly paved area outside the Intermediate School.
Ocean City Business Administrator Jim Mallon said Thursday that the city plans to reassess the bid package in its efforts to "move the project forward in a timely fashion and at a reasonable cost."
"I would prefer to see more bidders," Mallon said.
Because there are so many concurrent public projects ongoing statewide, bids on many different Ocean City projects have come in much higher than anticipated.
Hepner suggested the most cost-effective solution would be to return to the city's original proposal — to convert a few of the artificial turf tennis courts at Ocean City Intermediate School (at 18th Street and Haven Avenue) into Pickleball courts.
Hepner said the courts "sit unused most of the time."
He said he reviewed the sign-up sheets for July and August of last year, and the courts were empty 80 percent of the time — even on the busiest day of the week, Tuesday.
The only exception was for a women's doubles league that played for two hours each Wednesday for seven weeks, using all six courts.
Mallon and City Council members said they would consider all options to expedite the project and accommodate both Pickleball and tennis players, but they were unable on Thursday to outline a specific plan.
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