TC Park to install pickleball court

“It takes a village to get all this done,” said Liz Stender, chair of the Trout Creek Community Improvement Association (TCCIA), when asked about their soon to be installed pickleball court. Stender and the TCCIA are just hot off the heels from putting in a new Trout Creek playground just feet from where the proposed court site will be.

A few months ago, Stender received a call from Judy Erwin, a Trout Creek resident, who plays pickleball with a group in Thompson Falls. Stender started doing some research on the sport to see what putting in a court would involve. TCCIA has been interested in putting some kind of sports court into the park. “It has always been part of a discussion to put in a court with a basketball hoop,” said Stender. In her research, she found that pickleball courts are multiuse and can be used for other sports like tennis and basketball.

According to Nancy Fields, who plays with Erwin in Thompson Falls, pickleball is the fastest growing sport around the world. She explained that it can be played by all ages, with the largest age group being over 55. Fields, and the group she plays with, just applied for 501(c)(3) status for a nonprofit they are forming. The nonprofit will allow the group to take tax deductible donations for improvements to pickleball courts in Thompson Falls. Fields said the city of Thompson Falls has given the group permission to use, manage and maintain the tennis and basketball courts near the high school, which are on city property. If the nonprofit application is accepted, the organization will be called the Thompson Falls Pickleball Club, which will install and maintain several courts. The group wants to start by putting in four pickleball courts where the current tennis courts are, which Fields says are “currently almost unusable.”

After reaching out for information about the sport and putting such a multi-use court into Trout Creek, Stender was contacted by the owner of a company called Treasure State Athletics. The owner quoted the installation of a multi-use surface at $12,000 to $15,000. After talking with Stender, and hearing the mission of the TCCIA, he mentioned a pickleball court that was recently uninstalled from a private residence in Billings. The court surface is almost brand new, having had very little use, and he said they could install it in Trout Creek for just over $6,000.

Stender called the Frisbie Morbella Foundation, who said they would cover the invoice for the court installation cost, in full. After that, the TCCIA reached out to local businesses for concrete services. After contacting local contractor Billy Joe Moore, they discovered that such a slab, measuring 30 feet by 60 feet, would cost roughly $8,000. Moore stated that he will donate the labor, which is about half of that cost, as long as the TCCIA can cover the $4,000 cost of materials. Blackfoot Communications was then contacted, and they will contribute another $1,000 to help the project further.

Hi-Land Construction LLC, owned by Erwin’s son Mike, was contacted to do the site preparation. He said they would donate their time, costing the TCCIA nothing. “When it first happened, it was a good deal but more importantly we needed help. It doesn’t hurt to ask for help, and we got it!” said Stender. The court will go in this month. The slab is to be poured within three weeks, and the court surface is to be installed by the first of August. “When something like this lined up, we wanted to jump on it,” said Stender.

The group that plays pickleball in Thompson Falls use the courts near the high school in the summer and rents space in the Whitepine Mennonite Church in the winter. They play Monday, Wednesday and Friday starting at 9 a.m. They will release more information about future Thompson Falls courts after the nonprofit gets approval. Interested players can call Fields at (949) 412-8561 or Sue Borrego (907) 250-4536. Information about the TCCIA can be found at troutcreekcia.org.