![\"Pickleball](\"https:\/\/lamesacourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/pickleball-jump.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThey feel it’s safer for the police department to drive along Palm Avenue and be able to see down into the park. And if they say it’s raised six feet, they can see better, but our question is \u2018How long does it take for a police car to drive down into the park, look around and then turn around and go back?\u2019 Our presence playing pickleball keeps the riffraff out of the park,\u201d Wolpert said.<\/p>\n
Compacting the ground to be hard enough to accommodate a court may be expensive.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur opinion is, not being selfish just for pickleball, we want the park to look nice and be user-friendly also, but we think they ought to do it wisely, without spending all this money with still dirt,\u201d pickleball player Mike Wolpert said.<\/p>\n
The funding for the improvements come from several sources, according to Richardson, including park development fees, Federal Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), La Mesa Park and Recreation Foundation donations (for the new playground), and CA Proposition 68 Land and Water Bond funds.<\/p>\n
To address the one-year gap from construction, Richardson and the city\u2019s parks staff plan to transform the four youth tennis courts at La Mesita Park into temporary pickleball courts. The pickleball players concerned about the upcoming changes to Collier Park are concerned about this plan too, since the courts are shorter than normal pickleball courts and when the YMCA reopens, gym-goers will crowd the small parking lot.<\/p>\n
Other pickleball players will also crowd the La Mesita courts, and already do even though they are not regulation size. Richardson said that when city parks staff went to look at the La Mesita courts in preparation of striping them, they found that a group of pickleball enthusiasts had already taped off the courts to play there.<\/p>\n
Richardson also pointed out that the master plan for MacArthur Park, which is currently in the development phase, will have multiple pickleball courts to accommodate the fast-growing sport. However, those courts are a long way off from being built because the master plan is not yet complete and then funding will have to be allocated and acquired.<\/p>\n
The construction on Collier Park\u2019s second phase of improvements is expected to go out to bid early next year. Once a firm is chosen, the timeline for the park\u2019s closure will be more fully known. To learn more about the park\u2019s master plan, visit www.cityoflamesa.us\/1073\/Parks-Master-Plan<\/a>.<\/p>\n