So, What Happened at City Council?
- pickleballep
- 15 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Twenty-three hearty souls
Going to a City Council meeting is an empowering adventure when you bring your tribe! Twenty-three hearty souls showed up in force on Tuesday, August 19, to show this new City Council that we have a voice in El Paso. It is exhilarating when our community turns out - Thank you!
In 2022, Voters approved $5M for Neighborhood Improvement Projects, and proposals were submitted. Shout out to PEPA Treasurer Jim Rolph and member Anita Tennie for forming a Neighborhood Association and developing a proposal.
Twelve proposals were submitting for District 1 (west); seven were approved.
City-wide, all six pickleball courts/lines were approved:
Mary Frances Keisling Park (MFK west) 1 court
Argal Park (east) 2 courts
Ralph T Cloud Park (east) 2 courts
Mesquite Hills (Northeast) 1 set of multi-use lines on a basketball court
TIMELINE for all 28 NIP projects: Design 2026, construction completion of all projects in 2029.
Does anybody know how to get them to do the pickleball courts first? 👍🏻
They got a park named after them, but what about a court?
Another NIP approved project, one the whole city can get behind: Miners Park,14869 Willie Worsley in east El Paso, is located in an area where the streets are named after the players on the 1966 National Championship UTEP Basketball Team. One problem: the park does not have a basketball court 🤣 They will now -
Picks up!
(What developer did that?!)
If you want more information about what happened with NIP, see the "Nitty Gritty" section below.
"Pickleball" Isn't Named After a Dog?
We have all heard that our sport was named after a dog named "Pickles." Have you ever wondered why someone would name a dog Pickles??
According to Empower PIckleball, the dog was named after the sport, not the other way around. The idea for the name came from Joan Pritchard, wife of co-founder Joel Pritchard. Rowing is huge in the northwest part of the country, also the birthplace of pickleball. A "pickle boat" has a crew made up from left-over oarsmen from other boats. This resembles the way pickleball is an eclectic mix of rules from other sports. The dog joined the family three years after the invention of the sport. Empower Pickleball goes on to say a journalist recommended going with the dog story instead as it had more audience appeal.
Having originated in the northwest gives the row boat story credence, but I'll bet the dog story wins out because it is cuter.
The nitty gritty of the NIP outcome
Two courts were requested for MFK, so why did the two east side parks get 2 courts each, and the west side only get 1?
Each district received $600,000 and project proposals were solicited. For District 1 (Upper Valley and most of the west side), 12 proposals were submitted to the committee, and 7 were approved. The two biggest dollar amounts were for our pickleball court at Mary Frances Keisling Park, 651 Gomez Rd. ($85,000), and a playground in Enchanted Hills Park ($345,000).
That subdivision has three parks that are no more than grass slabs with a trash can. The City passed an ordinance in 2008 requiring builders to put in a playground and two shaded picnic tables, but it appears the land was purchased just before the ordinance was passed. and is therefor "vested," or exempt.
The developer is Douglas Schwartz of Southwest Land Development, and the area is located northwest of Transmountain Road, across from Providence Hospital.
Play happy,
Jamie Fisher
President, Pickleball El Paso Association
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