Councilman revives tennis courts for proposed 2026 budget, but council takes no action
Sep. 30—MITCHELL — A park improvement project is on the back burner.
Mitchell City Council member Mike Bathke wants the council to consider a $ 2.5 million tennis court installation at Hitchcock Park in its proposed 2026 budget, as discussed at the Monday, Sept. 22 special council meeting.
Bathke called it an elaborate plan, one that includes eight tennis courts and a parking lot.
The council discussed Mitchell School District (MSD) and Mitchell Tennis Association (MTA) paying for half of the project. However, the council took no action on the tennis courts. The Mitchell City Council is scheduled to approve the first reading of the 2026 budget on Nov. 3, with more budget meetings scheduled in October.
"I have serious concerns about the court's longevity," Bathke said.
Mitchell Mayor Jordan Hanson removed it from his proposed 2026 budget because it was the same price as the second fire station, Hanson told the council.
Parks and Recreation Director Kevin Nelson told the council that four new tennis courts would be built between the Hitchcock Park bandshell and the four tennis courts installed in 2016, and that the project included a new parking lot along South Foster Street east of the set of eight tennis courts.
Four new tennis courts would have to be built before four existing courts were removed and replaced, so that there would be a minimum of eight courts available during construction, according to Nelson.
This is a different plan than was presented to the council in March, when the council approved a $ 65,000 design agreement with Schmucker, Paul, Nohr and Associates (SPN) for replacing eight tennis courts with lighting updates at Hitchcock Park. Previously, the tennis court project was estimated to cost $ 783,686 and included replacing eight tennis courts and upgrading lights.
Nelson recounted to the council how he told MTA that the parking lot and additions were part of the package for the tennis court project, and that he couldn't commit to the city picking up the difference on the project.
"We need financing or funding regardless of what happens with that," Nelson said.
MTA president Jacob Dahme told the Mitchell Republic on Tuesday that he was positive MTA would get a $ 200,000 U.S. Tennis Association grant and that this would be a large portion of MTA's contribution for the project. Dahme told the Mitchell Republic he reached out to Nelson in an official capacity and told him the MTA board is more than willing to contribute to the project. However, the MTA board is waiting on a final engineer's estimate from SPN, expected to be completed in early October, to make a final decision regarding contributing funds.
"I have to imagine, once we get those numbers back, that the city council would at least review those and have that become part of the conversation again," Dahme said.
Dahme believes that the city of Mitchell, MTA and MSD need to know what the project will cost before making commitments to the project.
One hurdle on this project, according to Dahme, is that the city has added a parking lot to the tennis courts project, which has increased the total cost.
"In my mind, they were separate items. That's something we have to still get ironed out," Dahme said.
Dahme told the Mitchell Republic that MTA discussed with SPN engineers about rearranging the footprint of the tennis courts and confirmed that it would not be more expensive to do this. MTA requested that four new tennis courts be placed north of the four tennis courts that were installed in 2016.
"It was our understanding going into it that we weren't going to pay for the parking lot," Dahme said. "That's not something we actually have been asked to do in an official capacity. It was just something that was floated."
Mitchell School District Superintendent Joe Childs told the Mitchell Republic on Tuesday that the city has made no formal request for funding the tennis court project and that the district will consider it when and if there is a request.
The potential grant from the U.S. Tennis Association would not allow for pickleball lines to be drawn on the tennis courts, according to Nelson. In addition, a grant for lighting may also be available.
There are 12 tennis courts at Hitchcock Park. Four were installed in 2016 with contributions from the city of Mitchell, the Mitchell Tennis Association and the Mitchell School District. Council member Jeff Smith acknowledged that the Mitchell Tennis Association had a lot of donors for the project.
Previously, Dahme presented to the council that the tennis courts needed to be replaced because of safety concerns over cracks in the concrete tennis courts and requested that the city use post-tension, a concrete method that produces a longer lifespan.
"We have to replace them. We can't do any short-term fixes. They're past that point," Dahme said.
Once someone has a tennis racket and ball, tennis is a free activity, he said.
"And if we don't have these facilities, it takes away the opportunities from the kids, from their summer activities, as well as throughout their high school career," Dahme said.
The Mitchell Tennis Association is growing, Bathke told the council. New middle school tennis tournaments have been started and are successfully hosted at Hitchcock Park, bringing in hundreds of people to Mitchell and their spending power, according to Dahme.
"The biggest hurdle is if the city doesn't have the matching funds to contribute then the project is kind of dead in the water, but we just ask that they keep this on the top of their radar," Dahme said.
