Pickleball fans have cause to rejoice: Taylor will double the number of courts at Murphy Park in the coming weeks.
“There’s a shortage of courts all over. We get people traveling in because we have lit courts and now we’re going to add some more,” said Parks and Recreation Director Tyler Bybee.
Taylor City Council approved awarding two contracts to CourTex Construction, Inc. at its Thursday, April 11 meeting.
The first will add three more lighted pickleball courts just south of the existing three courts at Murphy Park. The second contract will see the running track at Memorial Field in Murphy Park repaired. Both projects are set to begin May 1.
Bybee said the option to transition some of the existing tennis courts into pickleball courts was discussed by Parks and Recreation officials, since pickleball is growing at an enormous rate, but ultimately decided on new construction.
“Let’s not take away an amenity we have. We have eight (tennis) courts and the tennis courts are used heavily too, so let’s get new courts,” Bybee said.
The damaged tennis practice boards, currently located in the pickleball area, will be replaced with a new fiberglass practice board and moved to another area within the tennis courts.
According to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association, pickleball participation has grown an average of 223.5% nationally over the last three years with the largest growth age group being 18 to 34-year-olds, which is 28.8% of total players. There are 325 players in Taylor who are registered on the pickleball group app, with some more who drop in.
In addition to free play, the city programs weekly pickleball events for youth and seniors. The courts have been used for lessons, sponsored events and tournaments. The amount budgeted for the new courts is $195,000, which includes $180,000 from the city’s Fiscal Year 2024 general fund and $15,000 from the 2023 Samsung Quality of Life Funds, a donation from Samsung Austin Semiconductor.
Renovating the running track will cost a projected $623,000. The proposed funding breakdown is $250,000 from a 2022 St. Davids Foundation Grant, $298,000 from the FY2024 general fund and $75,000 from the 2023 Samsung Quality of Life Funds.
“This is a great project for that … for all those groups to come together on something the community uses almost daily,” Bybee said.
The track is in a state of disrepair that will require almost complete replacement, according to the CourTex Construction proposal. The existing track will be removed, the subsurface and asphalt will be replaced, and a synthetic rubber surface applied. The project also calls for curbing that will keep the edges from cracking and crumbling, a situation that happened to the existing track.
The striping will be updated for six lanes rather than seven, to meet safety standards for the distance required between the outside lane and the fencing. This will also allow the field to host future running events, Bybee said.
“The current track has seven lanes, yet the lanes are too narrow for current regulations and too close to the bleachers per industry construction requirements,” according to Bybee’s presentation.
The running track reconstruction is projected to be completed by late June or early July.
