Western Springs pickleball players hope eight new pickleball courts will be built in Spring Rock Park, with the help of state funds.
The Western Springs Park District is submitting a revised application for a grant from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to fund a new dog park, lights for the baseball field, a tennis rebound wall and other amenities, in addition to the pickleball courts in Spring Rock Park, at 47th Street and Central Avenue.
The proposed improvements are expected to cost nearly $1.2 million. If approved, an Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development grant would fund 50 % of those expenses, up to a maximum of $600,000.
The deadline to apply is Sept. 30. The state department usually announces who will receive a grant six to eight months after the application deadline.
In an online petition supporting the plan, Park District Executive Director Walter Knake calls the 41-acre Spring Rock “the signature park” and “a gem of the community.”
The proposed features will encourage people to use the parks more, Knake said. They do not replace any existing amenities in Spring Rock, he said.
The Park District was unsuccessful when it applied last year for a 2022 OSLAD grant to help fund about $1 million in improvements at Spring Rock, Knake said.
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The grants, which are awarded for a wide variety of recreation amenities, including athletic fields, swimming pools, playgrounds, campgrounds, fishing piers, park roads and paths, are funded with the state’s real estate transfer tax.
The amount of money available varies on a yearly basis due to the fluctuation in the real estate market and appropriation authority provided by the General Assembly, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources states on its website.
For fiscal year 2023, the amount is $56 million, twice the amount for fiscal year 2022, when $28 million was allocated.
The Park District will include a petition, with 816 online signatures as of Sept. 26 on the website, change.org, in support of the grant with its application.
Knake calls the number of supporters, an “extraordinary” number.
In comparison, about 400 people signed the online petition supporting last year’s application, he said.
Most comments on the current petition are about how enjoyable pickleball is and the need for more courts, such as this one posted by Steven Winegar:
“My family loves pickleball, but getting an open court to play on in Western Springs is always a challenge, we need more courts in town to accommodate the growing pickleball players community here.”
Northeast Park, at 39th Street and Clausen Avenue in Western Springs, has four pickleball courts, while the Park District also has tennis courts in Field, Ridge Acres and Springdale parks that are marked so they can be used for pickleball games, too.
In this year’s application for Spring Rock Park, the Park District proposed more parking spaces for the pickleball courts, Knake said.
The rebound wall, against which tennis players can hit a ball for practice, also was moved outside the tennis courts, so someone can practice while other people are playing a match on the courts. The location of the proposed dog park was moved to give users easier access, too, Knake said.
In 2018, the Western Springs Park District received an OSLAD grant that helped pay for a splash pad, warming pavilion, tree platform and drainage improvements in Spring Rock, he said.
Kimberly Fornek is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.