COOK- At last Thursday’s regular Cook City Council meeting, councilors and members of the Friends of the Parks (FOTP) batted around the idea of turning the ice skating rink at the community center into a dual purpose arena where people could play the nation’s hottest next sport, pickleball.
Pickleball is a modified form of tennis played on a court the size of a double badminton court that uses a plastic ball and large paddles instead of a felt-covered ball and rackets. The sport has exploded in popularity, with communities across the country trying to figure out how to accommodate the demand. In metropolitan areas, pickleball courts have been built in vacant high-rise office spaces and empty mall outlets, while closer to home Greenwood Township’s tennis court has virtually been taken over by pickleballers.
“We’ve been approached by a lot of people who would like to see a pickleball court,” said FOTP member Jeanne Taylor. The ice rink is a possible option, but the current surface isn’t conducive for pickleball.
“The surface’s blacktop is cracked and you wouldn’t be able to play pickleball on it, and also because it’s black tar,” she said.
Taylor said a contractor who worked on portions of Veterans Riverfront Park for FOTP took a courtesy look at the rink for an eyeball rough estimate of what it might take to remove the blacktop and put in concrete instead. He guessed that the concrete alone would cost approximately $80,000, and adding in construction and additional costs could run such a project up to around $120,000, Taylor said.
Taylor asked the council to give its permission for FOTP to pursue the project. Such permission is needed because it is city property, and also is necessary to get formal quotes and pursue possible grants.
Taylor noted FOTP’s past successes as she made her pitch, saying the organization would be responsible for raising the money.
“In order for us to even start applying for grants we would have to have the permission of the city to pursue it,” she said. “That’s what we’re asking right now. I think Friends of the Parks has proved themselves that if we say we’re going to do a project we carry through and we get it done. If at some point you find some extra little pocket of money and you want to contribute, that’s great. But we’re not asking for that. We’re just asking for you to say yes. If the city says no, then we don’t write grants.”
At that point the council appeared to experience a catch-22, wanting a better handle on the scope and costs of the project from an engineering study when FOTP hasn’t had permission to pursue the project. Maintenance supervisor Tim Lilya said it would be possible to get the city’s engineer to get involved right away if the council gave permission to pursue the project.
But paying for the study would be up to FOTP. FOTP member Tammy Palmer suggested the possibility of a 50/50 split, but with the city already looking at how to trim a projected budget deficit for next year, FOTP will have to shoulder the cost themselves.
Questions were raised about the suitability of concrete for an ice rink surface, as well as additional repairs and/or modifications to the rink to accommodate a concrete pad. Answers to those questions could influence the project’s total cost, Taylor noted. Council member Kim Brunner asked how FOTP would know how much grant money to apply for.
“Without the engineering we don’t know if cement can go in there,” she said.
After discussion had continued back and forth a while longer, city administrator Theresa Martinson posed a relevant question to the council to move the conversation forward.
“Is the city ready for a pickleball court or a new rink at this point in time?” she asked.
Council member Jody Bixby responded.
“It doesn’t hurt to have the information brought to us – they’re doing the legwork and they bring it to the council,” she said. “Why wouldn’t we say yes to that? If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, but we don’t know until they do the legwork.”
Bixby made a motion to allow FOTP to move forward, and council member Elizabeth Storm asked that it be amended to specify that information brought to the council include an engineering study. The motion was approved.
Taylor also brought up another FOTP concern that’s been a nagging issue for the city, that of having regular staffing at the community center to accommodate general use and events. The challenge has been attracting applicants for the part-time position, and Martinson said the city intends to advertise the position again.
“It’s very hard to find people to work,” Martinson said. “If you know of somebody send them our way. We’ve tried advertising, we’ve tried social media, I don’t know what else to say. We’ve even gone to the school and talked with the school counselor.”
The council agreed to set up a work group to address the broader question of what role the community center should play, serving as a youth center, an events center, or both.
A final concern of FOTP dealt with the parking lot at Veterans Riverfront Park. When Canadian National has plowed the adjacent gravel lot in wintertime, where they pile the snow has obstructed drainage and damaged some plantings.
“We could put some shrubs or things in, but if they’re just going to pile all that snow on top of it, it would be wasting our money,” Taylor said.
The council confirmed that Lilya is planning to meet with CN officials to discuss the issue.
Meeting time
On the heels of some controversy over the time of city council meetings sparked by a letter to the editor in the Timberjay and the subsequent creation of multiple Facebook accounts that appeared and disappeared in a matter of days and a Change.org petition, Bixby asked that the council reconsider its 10 a.m. meeting time.
“I feel we should bring it back to the council and acknowledge it again,” Bixby said. “Whether people believe in signing a petition or a petition is valid, the last time someone sent me information there was almost 100 people that had signed that petition to move our meetings to 6 p.m. I don’t really care what time the meetings are, but I was elected by the people in the city to represent them, and if they want access, whether they come or not to the meetings, we should still make it available to them.”
Several council members expressed concerns that they hadn’t seen the petition and that it wasn’t clear that the originator of the petition or all the reported signees, which were not visible on the petition, were actually city residents.
Mayor Harold Johnston proposed that the question be tabled until the council can obtain answers to their questions about the petition.
Brunner questioned the need for a change.
“We’ve had more people coming for the 10 o’clock meeting than we ever had for the six o’clock meeting,” she said.
“I’m talking about making it accessible for everybody in the community,” Bixby said. “Ten o’clock is not making it accessible to everybody who works. These are taxpaying people, that’s why they’re working.
Martinson agreed to work with the county auditor to obtain a list of the city’s taxpayers with addresses to facilitate a possible survey. The issue was then tabled.
Levy increase
As is required by the end of September, the council voted to set the maximum proposed property tax levy increase for next year at six percent. While the rate would generate approximately an additional $30,000 for general fund operating expenses, current projections are for a deficit of about $8,200 for the city’s 2024.
City staff and the council will be working across a series of special budget meetings to find areas to reduce costs and possibly bring down the tax levy prior to the Truth in Taxation meeting scheduled for Dec. 21 at 6 p.m.