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GLADSTONE -- A member of the Gladstone Area Pickleball Board of Directors stepped up to the podium to make a big announcement at Monday's Gladstone City Commission meeting. The group successfully raised enough money to get a matching grant to construct a pickleball facility in Gladstone.
"I'm happy to report as of today we've raised over $57,000 of the $50,000 we needed to raise to secure the additional $50,000 matched from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation," said Rich Beauvais of the crowdfunding project that has been online since July 31. "We've achieved that hurdle."
The nonprofit has already been given approval to construct an eight-court facility at the John and Melissa Besse Sports Park and received bids from various businesses who will work to complete the goal. The total funds needed are estimated at $365,000.
The pickleball project came up again later in the meeting as part of a scheduled agenda item when a proposal to submit an application for a grant came before the commission. Still in need of reaching their goal amount, Gladstone Area Pickleball was seeking to apply for the Hannahville Indian Community 2% Grant for the amount of $10,000. The community accepts applications twice per year, and a few cycles ago, in March of 2022, the pickleball organization had applied for $50,000 when the project was still gaining traction. The Gladstone City Commission approved the motion for the new grant on Monday, which means they will appear as the government entity supporting the application when it reaches the Hannahville Indian Community.
Also at the meeting, Commissioner Robert Pontius relayed concerns that had been expressed to him by a resident about the fact that Gladstone seems to be getting bypassed by the "fiber to the home" (FTTH or FTTP, when "home" is interchanged with "premises") movement. The concern was not only because of a want for the fast, reliable internet offered by fiber-optic broadband, but also because having access increases property value.
City Manager Eric Buckman explained that the access being installed now is under a federal grant to give rural areas broadband, and the reason it is not coming into town is because Gladstone is not considered "rural."
"They gave us an estimate if we wanted to have them come in, and it was quite a bit of money," said Buckman. He, too, acknowledged that the route undertaken supposedly to connect one rural area to another didn't seem to make sense. "People are hooking up who are city residents, but they won't come into town (without cost) because they said it was a stipulation of their grant."
The matter may be questioned further in the future.
Other items covered during the meeting included:
-- Two appointments made by the commission. Buckman was reappointed to the DATA Board, and John Noreus was appointed to the Board of Review. Commissioners spoke highly of Noreus, who had served on the board in the past and has moved back to the area.
-- City Clerk Kim Berry announced county, city and township clerks have met to discuss voting operations. They will likely share election workers. Berry said that while all the details have not yet been worked out, they are carefully considering how to reach the best decisions.
Federal and state elections have nine-day voting periods, but local elections do not.
"This coming November election in 2023 will not be (eligible for) early voting the nine days prior. Nor any other local election," Berry emphasized.
Berry recommended that people who watch or otherwise follow national news disregard anything about voting coming out of other states. More details about voting in Delta County will be forthcoming as elections draw nearer.