The future site of eight new pickleball courts on the southwest portion of Independence Park. File photo
Ready the paddles and round up the iconic greens balls. Pickleball courts are coming to Independence Park in 2025.
The Johnson County Board of Commissioners accepted a $304,880 bid Monday to install pickleball courts at the park, located at 2100 S. Morgantown Road, Greenwood. All Star Paving is expected to start the project in March and finish in May.
The project is paid for using a portion of the county’s $31 million in funds from the American Rescue Plan Act, or ARPA.
ARPA money will also pay for a bridge project not to exceed $350,000 that will connect the parking lots between the new county community corrections building and the sheriff’s training center at 1081 Hospital Road, Franklin.
According to the ordinance authorizing the expenditure, All Star Paving’s bid for the pickleball project comes under budget as the project should not exceed $500,000. The full construction contract is still under negotiation and not available to review at this time, according to Adam Gadberry, county attorney.
ARPA was passed under President Joe Biden in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The county has used the funds to construct the new health department/coroner’s office building, the behavioral health facility at Johnson Memorial Health and fund the first few years of the county’s crisis intervention team, Gadberry said.
A committee of county officials came up with the overall plan for the county’s ARPA allocation. The committee approved a request to use the money for the pickleball courts in 2023, which at the time was a request for $150,000 to pay for half of the cost to add eight courts.
Originally, the request was contingent on the Johnson County Convention, Visitor and Tourism Board providing funding for the project, which never occurred, Gadberry said. The county is still reviewing whether additional equipment will be purchased for the courts and to what extent. This could include things such as a canopy to provide shade for people waiting for their turn to play.
The county has not used all of its ARPA funds and will have approximately $1.4 million left, Gadberry said.
When the request was first presented, it was met with support from committee members, particularly county commissioner and committee president Ron West. According to West, the courts are being built to meet growing interest in the sport.
“There is a lot of demand,” West previously said. “We don’t have any pickleball courts at any of our county facilities, and White River Township has a tremendous amount of players. Every year, pickleball is growing leaps and bounds and the sport has been experiencing a 30 to 40% growth nationally every year.”
Kevin Leonard, superintendent of Johnson County Parks and Recreation, said the courts will be a needed addition to Independence Park.
“Pickleball continues to be very popular and continues to grow,” Leonard said. “Independence Park is already a very popular park and being able to offer that new amenity in our parks is exciting for us.”
Johnson County isn’t the only entity embracing the sport’s popularity. The site will add to the growing number of nearby courts, including at Greenwood’s Craig Park and Freedom Park, Franklin’s Youngs Creek Park and Community Park and Bargersville’s Kephart Park. There is also an indoor pickleball complex in Franklin called Drop Shot.
“The thing with pickleball is that it is fun and accommodating for most everybody — the young, the old, men, women,” West previously said. “It is mild exercise. I’ve been playing for 6 or 7 years and I’d hate to think of what shape I’d be in if pickleball didn’t come into my life.”
