BROOKINGS — A nearly $397,000 bid for pickleball courts at Hillcrest Park was approved on a 7-0 vote by the City Council on Tuesday night. Now all that’s left is to, well, build them.

Parks, Recreation and Forestry Director Kristen Zimmerman told councilors that work should wrap up by late summer, with an official opening afterward.

“As soon as it warms up — which could be any day now — they’re going to start and the contract is supposed to be completed at the end of August at the absolute latest,” Zimmerman said. “We’ll have our ribbon-cutting in the fall.”

The city has budgeted $775,000 for the project, which will be built by Brookings-based Timmons Construction and constructed to meet USA Pickleball standards. Broken down, the dollars add up to:

• $125,000 in city funds
• $200,000 in grant funds
• $450,000 in private donation funds

Basic math shows that there’s a gap of roughly $378,000 between the contract amount and the budgeted amount. There are plans afoot, though, to use at least some of those funds to further improve the incoming post-tension concrete courts, of which there will be eight, at Hillcrest Park.

“We will be coming back for an adjustment to increase the playing size around the courts to allow for more competitive play,” Zimmerman noted. “And then, also, (an) alleyway down the middle, so if you have a big tournament going on you can have entries at each court, not necessarily (just) one entry for all the courts.”

In approving the main construction contract, councilors at the same time rejected lesser contract proposals that were related to lighting equipment for the pickleball courts.

Zimmerman said the reason for the “Base Bid B” rejections is because the city can get the lighting — including greater functionality aspects such as an auto-off function, an increased warranty and more lumens, which benefits competitive pickleball play — using a Sourcewell contract, which is a government purchasing cooperative.

“We’ll be utilizing that to purchase the lights for the pickleball courts,” she said.

Annexation

In other business at Tuesday night’s meeting, a 7-0 vote by the City Council approved the voluntary annexation of a little more than 30 acres of land into the city limits.

The annexation request was submitted by TH Companies LLC and involves acres at 1115 West 20^th Street South. This is but the first step in what could eventually become a new residential development once zoning and other issues are cleared.

— Contact Mondell Keck at mkeck@brookingsregister.com.