HASSO HERING

On March 8, the pickleball courts at Hackleman Park were locked up for repairs.

The pickleball courts at Albany’s Hackleman Park had lots of big cracks in the concrete. Now the courts are getting repaired.

After doing a story about the sad shape of the playing surface there last September, I heard about the pending repairs last week. On a bike ride, I stopped and found the courts already locked up and the old net posts removed.

Albany Parks and Recreation contracted with Pacific Ace LLC, of Vancouver, Wash., to handle the repair job. It includes installing new posts and nets, along with resurfacing and repainting the courts.

The price is $24,900, which is coming out of the city’s park maintenance and repair budget. Part of the $9 monthly city services fee goes to that fund.

The same company previously resurfaced the tennis courts at Henderson and Burkhart parks in Albany.

The work on the Hackleman courts will take a while. The concrete for the new posts has to cure for 30 days before the resurfacing and the painting of lines can be done.

Also, the surfacing has to wait until the temperature is right and there’s no chance of rain. (Good luck with that during an Oregon spring.)

Last fall, pickleball players using the Hackleman court proposed to raise money and hire someone to fill the cracks before the year was out. But the rules for procurement by local government did not allow such a freelance approach to repairing a city-owned facility.

Kim Lyddane, Albany parks and recreation director, says the pickleball players can still help.

“Should community members wish to contribute to the project or future pickleball maintenance,” she wrote in an email, “they are encouraged to donate to the Albany Parks and Recreation Foundation as regardless of the timeline, donations assist when it comes to our limited budget.”

If the weather cooperates, the new courts at Hackleman should be open after May 1, as the sign on the gate says. (hh)