Location of pickleball courts at John and Melissa Besse Sports Park

GLADSTONE — A few more pieces are still waiting to be assembled, but the new home of Gladstone Area Pickleball should be ready for play before the end of the year at the John and Melissa Besse Sports Park. To those temporarily playing on their shared-use courts in downtown Gladstone, it probably seems like completion can’t come soon enough, but this project has moved at an unusually fast pace — driven by the enthusiasm and numbers of pickleball players in Delta County and beyond.

In 2021, a fundraiser organized by Gladstone Area Pickleball enabled the resurfacing of multi-purpose shared courts — four for pickleball, two for tennis and two for basketball — at the southwest corner of Montana Avenue and South Tenth Street. The nature of the facilities makes it so that only one of the three sports can utilize the court at a time, so there’s a schedule to adhere to; additionally, the grounds belong to James T. Jones Elementary School, which means that availability is limited even further when school is in session.

Beyond the restrictions of time, space is another pressing issue. Even by the time the courts by the school were resurfaced, it was already evident that the group needed more room.

By October of 2021, the notion of building a brand-new, eight-court area purpose-built for Gladstone Area Pickleball in the Besse Sports Park — which houses a ski hill, ball fields, a disc golf course and more — appeared before the city commission.

Gladstone Area Pickleball spent much of 2022 continuing to pitch the concept to donors and gather pledges. In the summer of 2023, after securing $265,000 but in need of $100,000 more, a crowdfunding campaign for the “Courts of Dreams” project opened on the online platform Patronicity. By late September it had exceeded its goal. Over $60,000 was donated by members, local organizations and visiting players, and the Michigan Economic Development Corporation’s Public Spaces Community Places program contributed $50,000. The excess and further funds raised will be used for ongoing upkeep.

The City of Gladstone prepared the site in the sports park early this spring. By mid-May, it was ready for the cement foundation. U.P. Concrete stepped in to handle the next step.

“The court surface, 20-foot section of a gathering area and interior walkway cement was completed the end of May,” said Janet Shandonay-Beauvais, who, along with husband Richard Beauvais, is spearheading the project.

Right now, the group is waiting for Delta Fence to install posts around what is now just a big slab between a baseball diamond and the forested disc golf course. Delta Fence said they expect to perform the work on Tuesday, July 9.

“They will begin with setting the exterior 10-foot fence posts in with continuation onto the inner fencing which will separate the individual courts,” Shandonay-Beauvais explained. “Once the exterior fence posts are in, U.P. Concrete will return at some point to pour a four-foot area of cement around the whole exterior fence. This provides a nice walkway around the courts, but also adds a barrier between grass and sand being able to impede on the actual playing surface. The courts themselves will be sealed and painted by Sealer King out of Wetmore, Mich.”

While specific dates are not yet projected, Gladstone Area Pickleball hopes the new courts will be play-ready this autumn.

Until then, they continue to adhere to a strict schedule on the courts near Jones Elementary: weekdays from 10 a.m. to noon are for beginners and social play; intermediate matches are Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8 to 10 a.m.; Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays from 8 to 10 a.m. are the most competitive; and Sundays at 1 p.m. play is open to all.

On some days, Shandonay-Beauvais mentioned, there is an “overload of players,” and the courts in the sports park can’t be finished fast enough.

Though access is staggered now, “once the new courts are completed, it will allow us to schedule league play to ensure that all levels will have access to prime court time each morning when it is cooler and especially less windy,” she said.

The group, the space and their materials aren’t limited to members, of which there are about 110 currently. With pickleball as popular as it is, many people passing through looking for places to play end up getting together with Gladstone Area Pickleball — which, by the way, is inclusive with the word “area.”

The nonprofit Gladstone Area Pickleball is actually registered in Rapid River, and its new courts are intended to be a mecca for all of Delta County and its visitors. Only if people become regular players are they encouraged to purchase membership, fees from which go towards furthering the organization and maintaining the site and equipment.