Publisher’s Perspective

By Tim Douglass, Publisher of the Pope County Tribune

Where were the voices supporting the tennis courts last year?

The Pope County Tribune carried a number of stories in the last year and before on pickleball and a local pickleball group’s efforts to use the city’s tennis courts for pickleball.

First, the city temporarily “striped” the tennis courts in 2020 so they could be used for pickleball.  Then, a year ago, after discussion about providing permanent pickleball courts, the city commission approved a permanent transformation of tennis to pickleball.  At the time of the discussions, no one supporting tennis ever showed up at the meetings and very few (that I know of) voiced any concern about tennis to Glenwood City Commissioners.

So, it was in December of 2021 (yes, one year ago,) that the city commission formally approved making the transformation from tennis to pickleball.  It did so at a public meeting.

The city didn’t make the decision in the dark.  This newspaper covered their discussions with a number of stories including a front-page story on the decision in the Dec. 20 issue of the Tribune.

So, with the decision made, money was raised and spent and some if  not most of the work making the pickleball courts has already taken place.

It isn’t that we believe that pickleball should take the place of tennis courts, but we understand how the decision was arrived at and how it happened.  It was the most cost effective way for the city to provide pickleball courts to the public offerings it has at its city parks.  And pickle ball is very popular.

So now, with the reality of the decision now sinking in, there are a number of tennis enthusiasts and other residents who believe the city should provide both pickleball and tennis courts.

We don’t disagree.  Providing both would be a decision the city  commission would likely favor as well.   But maybe, just maybe, the city is too far down the road to provide both and stay within its budget.  It would not be easy to simply construct another tennis court.  The city could substitute a tennis court for the basketball court at the City Park.  But how would basketball players (our youth) feel about that.  If that was done, the city would likely need to add basketball courts back into the mix.

And so it goes.

Should the city decide to revisit this situation and try to come up with a workable solution, we would commend their efforts.  But, we also realize that this decision has been made and there is no easy or inexpensive way to provide tennis, pickleball and basketball on the same courts.

The newly inspired support for tennis is commendable, but may be a dollar short and a day late.

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With the latest projected surplus of 17.6 billion for the State of Minnesota, the legislature should be in a position to do a few things that would help Greater Minnesota.

Number one would be to increase LGA for Greater Minnesota Cities.  That aid still sits at 2002 levels and could go a long way to reducing property taxes in many Greater Minnesota cities.