Kenai parks commission puts tennis and pickleball courts ahead of shop design

The Kenai Parks and Recreation Commission moved $150,000 out of a new parks shop design Thursday, Oct. 1, and put it toward resurfaced tennis and pickleball courts. The commission approved its 2028-2032 capital improvement priority list by unanimous consent.

The court project would cost about $300,000. Parks and Recreation Director Tyler Best said the city would ask for $150,000 from the general fund. Best said the rest would come from partners: the pickleball club, possibly tennis players and possibly the school district. The courts would go either at the Kenai Central High School tennis courts or the multi-court area at Kenai Middle School.

"We think we could redo one of our courts for about $300,000," Best said.

The shop design, for moving the parks department to Daubenspeck, had been set for fiscal year 2028. It is the first step in a $3 million relocation shown for fiscal 2030. Best said no grants have been identified for that $3 million, and the city does not know what space could open if fire and police move. "We thought we should probably take that $150,000 we were proposing for a design and move it back," Best said.

The general fund request for fiscal 2028 does not change. "The piece of the pie we're asking for is the same as it was before," Best said.

The surface is not settled. Best said concrete courts would run more than $700,000, based on Soldotna Creek Park, built 10 years ago, adjusted for inflation per square foot. Best pointed instead to Palmer, where a local group redid tennis courts in 2022 with blacktop and an acrylic finish, but said pickleball players had said blacktop does not last long. At the commission's Sept. 3 meeting, Andrea Malard of the Kenai Peninsula Pickleball Club noted the club's preference for concrete, the minutes say. The commission asked for alternatives. The city has not sought bids.

The list also schedules a $75,000 roof design for the multipurpose facility in fiscal 2028, $50,000 in fiscal 2030 to design a locker room renovation there, and a $5.3 million replacement of its refrigeration system in fiscal 2031. Best said that roof is "getting on its last leg."

The commission's list goes to the city manager and the Kenai City Council, as commission rules require. Best said the department is still working with the pickleball group and hopes to see what can be done before the next fiscal year if funding is approved.