The tennis courts along Gold Street — which were previously owned by Centralia College — are seen in this March file photo. The college exchanged property with the city of Centralia for Cedar Street Park, which is adjacent to property owned by the college.
The dilapidated Gold Street tennis courts in Centralia will be transformed into a hard-surfaced, multi-use park.
The Centralia City Council on Tuesday approved a plan to convert the western third of the 30,000-square-foot property into four pickleball courts, the middle third into bocce ball courts and the remaining third into a hardscaped soccer and multi-use area.
The plan was devised after the city received a large number of requests for it, Community Development Director Emil Pierson said. It was taken to the parks board for its recommendations. All but one of the board’s five members supported the plan and provided some additional recommendations.
“Pickleball is becoming very popular with the older residents because it is not as physically demanding as tennis,” Centralia resident Dale Luger said in a letter to the city. “In Arizona, pickleball courts are used at least three times as much as tennis courts. Converting to pickleball would be very inexpensive since it is a smaller court. New net, new painting and new striping is all that is necessary.”
Pickleball is a combination of tennis, badminton and ping-pong. It is played on a court about the size of a badminton court that is set similarly to a tennis court.
Councilor Max Vogt said he supports the idea not only because it benefits the community but because people of different generations can use it and mingle with one another.
“It is nice to see something to brighten up that side of town,” Councilor Joyce Barnes said.
The city acquired the Gold Street courts from Centralia College in March in exchange for Cedar Park.
It is too early to know how much the conversion will cost, Pierson said, but he is confident it will fit into the community development budget over a number of years. The overall condition of the hardscaping has yet to be determined, but the large cracks will be blown out and filled with a sealant.
The area where the pickleball courts are planned is in the best condition, and the city may already have enough chain link fence in storage for the courts to build them fairly soon, Pierson said. The bocce ball courts and soccer field will come later.
Although the primary use of the 100 feet by 120 feet area will be for soccer during the wetter spring months, it can also be used by parents teaching their children to ride a bike or for other activities, Pierson said.
“This is something that can be utilized by a large number of people in the community,” he said.
The area once used as a parking lot for the courts is owned by a private individual, so all the parking will be on the street, Pierson said. The area to the west is zoned as commercial, so there are plenty of street parking opportunities.
The council was very supportive of the idea on Tuesday, unanimously adopting the plan.
“It will be great for the community,” Mayor Bonnie Canaday said.
