By Jim Bloch
The city of Port Huron is preparing to spend $119,800 to recoat and paint the tennis courts behind the Tennis House in Sanborn Park as pickleball courts.
At its regular meeting May 27, the city council voted 6-1 to award the contract to sole bidder Goddard Coatings Company of Pontiac. Council member Barb Payton voted against the award.
“This project is a coating and painting of the existing back tennis courts located at Sanborn Park next to the Tennis House, (for) which Council approved an amended lease in 2023, to accommodate use as pickleball courts,” said City Manager James Freed in his memo to council about the project. Freed missed the meeting; David Haynes, the city’s director of planning and community development, represented the administration in Freed’s absence.
The amended lease left the two outside tennis courts in control of the city.
A resident dressed as a clown spoke against the project. The clown said that the money could be better used to improve the safety of pedestrians along 24th Street, including constructing sidewalks between Griswald and Lapeer.
“Safety should be your number one priority as the city council,” the clown said.
The pickleball courts and other improvements at Sanborn Park are specified in the state grant that is being used to pay for the work; the money cannot be used for other projects. The funding comes from a Michigan Department of Natural Resources Trust Fund grant for $250,000, which required a $250,000 city match. Some of the work has already been completed. The grant for paid improvements at Sanborn Pool, including a new boiler, installed in 2024 by Watson Brothers Company of Port Huron in the amount of $67,500. ADA parking spaces and other items are coming in 2025.
“Previous work consisting of milling and resurfacing was completed on the courts in 2024,” Freed said. Astec Asphalt, Inc. of Brown City repaired and resurfaced the courts last year for $125,000.
“Work (still) needed consists of the courts to be coated and painted,” Freed said. “Work consists of furnishing all labor, material and equipment to design, reseal and re-stripe the existing tennis courts located on the north side of Sanborn Park … to accommodate use as pickleball courts. This includes the furnishing and installation of (a) net tension system and four-foot chain link fencing as shown on the drawings… The project’s base bid consists of the design, reseal, and restripe of approximately 26,000 SFT of existing tennis courts to create pickleball courts. An alternate bid was included in the project that consists of the purchase and installation of the net tension system and four-foot chain link fence.”
Jim Bloch is a freelance writer based in St. Clair, Michigan. Contact him at bloch.jim@gmail.com.
1 comment
Where is everyone going to park? They should be converting a couple of the courts fronting Sanborn Street. I think most people don’t even know that there were tennis courts in the back. Whenever I’m back visiting there’s no one using the front courts.