PARKS AND REC. BOARD HEARS ABOUT PICKLEBALL / BASKETBALL
A full house greeted the Brenham Parks and Recreation Advisory Board for their Workshop Session this Wednesday afternoon. The board decided to move from the conference room to the regular City Council Chambers to give everyone more room. The question on everyone’s minds is if the city should build more Pickleball courts at Jackson Street Park at the expense of doing away with the Basketball court. Four people that talked during the open comments portion of the meeting were pro-Pickleball, while three people that spoke were pro-Basketball. Everyone had an opinion. The Brenham Pickleball Association presented their plan to build a total of 22 courts at Jackson Street Park in four stages, doing away with the current Basketball court in the process. The pro-basketball crowd felt this would be unfair for the dwindling number of playable courts in Brenham. Chairman of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, Bill Betts, said the people are there at the correct time because the city is about to make a decision about the renovation of Jackson Street Park. He said, “Let’s get this right.” The city currently, thru BCDC, has budgeted $715,000 to Jackson Street Park for the upgrade of restrooms, electrical, and newer play areas. The board took no action on the item as this was only a workshop session.
In other action, the board did vote to approve the 2024 Fee Schedule. They amended the non-resident Blue Bell Aquatic Center pricing from $10 per day to $8 per day. The also voted to amend the Sectional Teams Annual Fee. The fees are broken down to Resident / Non-Resident admission. Most fees for the city will see a slight increase, including the Carousel at Fireman’s Park. It is going from $1/rider per day to $1/ rider each time.
Dear Brenham Parks Board,
First let me say, for a town our size we have a tremendous park system. The amount of maintenance and upkeep is quite an undertaking and you’ve done a terrific job. We are so fortunate.
What a tough decision you have in front of you when it comes to Jackson Street Park. I’m confident you will take your time and make a decision that works for everyone.
As a neighbor to the park I see Jackson Street Park utilized every day. The basketball courts are really busy in the evenings just like the Pickleball courts. Parking is already an issue especially if the fields are being used for football, soccer and people using the walking trail. Cars end up parking on Jackson Street. It’s a dangerous street with lots of racing up and down with loud music and loud cars.
My opinion would be to use the money to move the Pickleball courts to another park. Previously mentioned, the park off of 290 behind the new shopping center. If you’re thinking of building courts in stages with bleachers you have plenty of room to keep expanding and provide plenty of space for parking. Pickleball has a lot of possibilities to bring in revenue for Brenham with tournaments. It means people staying in hotels and eating locally.
The basketball courts either needs to stay put or be rebuilt close by on Blinn’s campus. When you take away places for kids to get out and socialize and play sports, you’re creating more problems within the community. It’s a small town with very little for kids to do. Don’t turn this into Pickleball verses Basketball, they can coexist. Please figure out a way for everyone to be happy.
I agree with you totally
I agree. The new 290 park would seem a better fit for pickle ball, holding tournaments and future expansion. The area has retail, motel and restaurants for tournament players to easily access and enjoy.
There are so many residential homes around Jackson Street Park which could potentially be affected by noise (read about complaints from neighborhoods around the state and country) and congestion of tournaments or practice games.
Basketball is played at Jackson Street Park constantly and should be allowed to continue for neighborhood kids who may walk to the park.
It is a fact baseball brings in a good amount of revenue with tournaments, but Brenham is growing and with this growth brings new sporting interests.
The new 290 park would appear a perfect location for baseball and pickle ball to cohabitate and each bring in additional revenue for this bucolic city.
I think creating a plan for the entire park would be best before just cramping a bunch of pickleball courts right by the road. Jackson street park is huge 18 acres I think and there is plenty of room to do more courts and leave the basketball courts. Parking would need to be added also but the same goes with it. The plans they had drawn just added more spots right off of the road, so when a person would drive by all you would see is pickle ball courts and parking lot, no park. Any opportunity to bring in people and money to Brenham would be great as long as it is not at the cost of others who enjoy other parts of the park. The nice thing about those basketball courts is they are close to the road, and easy to pratol or for a citizen to see if anything is going on that should not be unlike some of the other courts in town.