Still believes tennis should be available for ‘our children’

By Cody Bosek,

Glenwood resident

As I write this I am at a cross roads of where to go, and what to do next. I’m sure many of you now have read about the Glenwood City Commission’s decision to retire the last tennis courts in this city, and give exclusive use of those courts to the pickleball community.

I have tried to put up the good fight, because I truly believe children are our most valuable asset, and they should have as many opportunities as possible to become productive members of the community. I will give a brief recap of where everything stands currently, after learning of this decision just a few months ago.

I had first reached out to the pickleball community asking them to entertain a plan that would have allowed them to keep the 4 courts they requested, and spare one tennis court. After a failed attempt trying to reach a bargain with them. I sought out the help of the city commission who approved the decision  to convert tennis courts into permanent pickle ball courts over a year ago. Having grown up in this town, and knowing the city’s reputation. I knew my chances were slim. However, for the sake of the children of this community, and my children to have the same opportunities I had growing up here, I knew I had to give it a chance. What I didn’t expect was just how fantastically this city could exceed my own preconceived notions and its reputation.

I proposed the same plan to the city to give the pickleball community exactly what they wanted, and allow for one tennis court to be saved with minimal cost to the city $15,000 estimated. I submitted my plan in an agenda meeting, and was told if there was merit to my plan we would have to be fair to the pickleball community, and they would have to get involved down the road as well. Which is absolutely fair. That is the same fairness I had wished the tennis community would have received a year ago.

What I was not prepared for was the degree to which the city went to stand by its decision. When I pulled up to the meeting that was supposed to be an initial look into the plan I submitted, I was amazed at the number of vehicles; it wasn’t until I entered City Hall that it became obviously clear to me that someone on the city commission went out of their way to invite the pickleball community pre-emptively to that meeting. This put an unusual tempo to the meeting and gave the whole atmosphere of the meeting a feeling of bias by sheer numbers alone.

As I stood respectfully in the back letting others sit, I awaited my turn, and as my agenda item arrived one of the commission members stated, “well the way I see it is we can vote on it or not.” It was at that moment I realized that this meeting was nothing more than pomp and circumstance, a show rather. I raised my hand to speak and make a few points. When I tried to address the pickleball members I was chastised by the commission that I was there to address the commission, and not the pickleball members. Realizing that it was over before it even began I departed the podium knowing exactly what the outcome was going to be. Without even discussing my plan or any of the three options I submitted to meet the needs of everyone, the commission unanimously cast their vote to stay with  their previous decision. After realizing there was no intent to give fair equitable consideration to the plan I submitted, I decided to address the commission with a follow up to ask them some accountability questions, that would not have been hard questions if they had really considered my plan.  I felt the questions were necessary to ask since they refused to ask the pickleball community any questions on whether or not they were willing to break bread for the sake of the tennis community after the commission had invited the pickleball community to the meeting.

The only question the commission would have had to ask was: “Would you entertain this plan that gives you everything you requested, and still allows the children of this community to have access to a MSHSL sport court so that the needs of all would be met?”

But they would not even ask that one critical question that would absolve themselves of sharing in any part of the action of taking an asset children use to compete in High School sports away from them and reducing the overall recreational activities we have available in this town. So, I met with the city administrator who said accountability questions should be fine so long as we have them on the agenda ahead of time in order to give the commissioners time to think about them. I said absolutely, “that is fair.”

Had there been more consideration and discussion of my agenda item, there would have been no need for follow up questions. In the context of giving fair consideration to my agenda plan these questions would not seem that drastic. However, since the commission had no intention of discussing a way forward that met the needs of everyone. I can only speculate that the most likely reason I was denied having these questions answered is the fact that they point out a lot of truths as to how this was rushed though in the first place, and would damage the credibility of the city commission, and paint them in a negative light since my questions show bias, and a mishandling by rushing this though. So, not surprisingly I was denied a follow up meeting with the city commission to ask those important accountability questions that deserved to be answered. Some of the questions were as follows.

“It was implied so heavily that the tennis coaches knew this was happening, that the paper quoted that coaches knew, however the coaches only talked with the city about the conditions of the court. Can you confirm that you explicitly talked with the tennis coaches about turning the courts exclusively into pickleball courts?”

“The city did not enter into legal contracts: how could the city be held liable for adjusting its decision on what it does with its own public lands?”

“Why would you even invite the pickleball community if you had no intentions to discuss finding a way to make this work for everyone?”

“You knew before all of this that MAHS had a tennis team, however you did not go out of your way to make sure the Tennis Team was present when the Pickleball community first came to you with their plan, how is it fair that you went out of your way to make sure the Pickleball members were in attendance pre-emptively to even discussing my plan that accommodates everyone”

“Why were my agenda items (proposed plans) withheld from the pickleball members?”

“Why was this rushed to a decision without discussing my proposed plan in its entirety with the pickleball members present to hear they would get exactly what they asked for?

“You’ve been talking about permits for ATVs  for the better part of a year to make a few extra dollars for the city. Why would you not even table this quarter million-dollar topic, and get it right for the children of the community?”

When you read these questions, you can understand the extent and speed the city exercised without putting a lot of thought into actually considering finding a solution for everyone. Instead they opted to try squash this quickly, and quietly instead of actually giving it the fair consideration it deserved. The questions I wanted to ask really start to show just how much of a charade that meeting was. I prefer to talk with people face to face, however when they are too afraid to answer hard questions I felt like I had no other option but to let the community see these questions. After everything else I wasn’t surprised that the commission denied my request to ask some further questions on the matter. In fact, not only did the city deny my request to ask questions they felt it was necessary to have the city attorney write me an email saying how inappropriate it is to ask those questions.

After going to many different city meetings, I have learned the city was well aware that the Tennis courts were used in some manner. I was told by the city administrator that when the Pickleball member first put tape down on the Tennis courts, that Tennis Players were ripping the tape up, because they didn’t know what it was. At the parks and rec meeting one of the members stated that he knew people who gave lessons down at the Tennis courts. The biggest reason this got approved was the members of the city let their personal observations guide them instead of facts. That is a recipe for mistakes. Periodically they would drive by the Tennis Courts and would note if they saw anyone there. It takes a minute to drive by, and there are 16 hours of day light during the summer. That’s a lot of unattended minutes to base a quarter million-dollar decision off of. They said the Tennis courts didn’t get used even though they had evidence they did. I don’t blame them for that thinking that way. Most people think that as well. I myself didn’t realize just how much use those courts got used, and I am very excited that the city commissioners will find out reading this how much of an asset those Tennis courts were. It took me all of 5 minutes to create an online survey to distribute throughout MAHS and of the 273 responses I received, 161 students said they have used the Glenwood Tennis courts at some point.

So, what was the city’s solution for me? Instead of working together, and saving everyone time, and money. They offered me the option that the pickleball community initially turned down because it was 6 times more expensive than converting the Tennis courts into Pickleball courts. In true Glenwood were not going to spend a dime on anything fashion. The solution offered to me was to go out and fundraise to turn the sand volleyball courts into Tennis Courts again. So, in that true Glenwood city spirit instead of admitting they made a mistake, and discussing a plan that would only cost approximately $15,000 to remedy. Which I proposed could either paid by the city because of the mistake, or through a fundraiser to remedy this mistake. The commission decided to go with its old faithful number one plan of passing the buck onto the middle class who are working, and raising children to fundraise a quarter of a million dollars to replace the Tennis Courts that were there first, and were being used as a shaded asset just fine. While the mostly retired group of Pickleball players only had to raise $50,000 in their spare time.

With winter here, the construction project has come to a stop, and I am still hoping the city will come to its senses over these long winter months and think about this. At this point in construction were talking about moving a few posts, patching holes, and that is it. A very inexpensive fix since we are early in the remodeling process.

In the last month. I have run into so many people who have told me, “keep it up” “how can I help” “I can’t believe the city would do that” “It was a stupid decision” If you feel the same way please let your commissioners know when you see them. So maybe next time they decide to take something away from children. They will be reminded of the first thing we learn in kindergarten. Sharing is caring.

In the end, as it often goes with situations like this. The children end up being the primary victims in all this. Having no understanding of how city politics work, unless someone is looking out for them. They will always loose. You can’t win scholarships to college by playing Pickleball, and you can’t get good enough at Tennis to get scholarships without easy access to a court.