PICKLE IT, SPIKE IT, SERVE IT IN A BASKET
After sitting cracked and overgrown with weeds for years, the tennis courts at Crowley Lake are finally getting a $430,000 facelift, and this time they’ll serve more than just tennis players.
County Service Area 1 (CSA1), the advisory board that oversees community projects in the Crowley Lake area, broke ground on the renovation roughly two weeks ago. When finished, likely by the end of October, the site will function as a multi-use sports court with markings for tennis, volleyball, basketball and pickleball, along with new fencing and improved ADA access.
“It is a multipurpose court,” said Lorinda Beatty, secretary to the CSA1 board. “It should have been done a long time ago, but due to circumstances beyond a lot of people’s control, it just couldn’t get done.”
Beatty, who has worked for CSA1 since 2000, said the tennis court renovation was already on the district’s list of priorities when she started. But COVID, staffing shortages at the county and a shifting list of competing priorities kept pushing the project back. Former Mono County official Paul Roten helped move it up the list and connect the district with contractors. Roten retired from the county in June.
By the time work began, the courts had deteriorated badly. Beatty said weeds were pushing up through the pavement and that there were cracks throughout the surface.
As design work got underway last fall, the board took the renovation as an opportunity to expand its use. And since residents had already been taping off makeshift pickleball lines on the old, crumbling courts, that was given some priority.
“Our decision wasn’t to change anything but to add pickleball, because as a group we considered it a good idea plus we heard from our local community that they would like it,” said John Connolly, a CSA1 board member. “The old tennis sport court was falling apart, so it is being rebuilt from the ground up with new fencing and better access too.”
Beatty said the district sought public input through the Crowley Lake Neighborhood Facebook group and posted about the layout multiple times for comment. Most residents asked for pickleball, volleyball, basketball and tennis. One resident requested a surface for roller hockey, but the district couldn’t accommodate it because of the court’s material. Plans for the final layout were signed off on May 5.
The contractor was given 60 days from the start of construction, which points to an October 30 completion date, including the final walkthrough and time for the court surface to cure.
The initial contractor quote for the project came in at $430,000, with any change orders capped at $13,000, according to district records.
CSA1 is funded through a share of property tax revenue collected in its coverage area, which stretches roughly from Sunny Slopes down toward Tom’s Place, and operates as an advisory board to the Mono County Board of Supervisors.
The district can approve spending on small community events under $5,000, such as its seasonal gatherings and yard sales, but anything above that threshold, including capital projects like the sports court, requires board of supervisors approval as part of CSA1’s annual budget, which is submitted to the county each March.
Beatty said the tennis court project was likely first approved through that budget process not long after she started with the district, with the most recent funding update coming last summer as costs continued to rise.
The sports court is one of several community investments the district has funded over the years, including Crowley Lake’s community center and skate park. CSA1 is also working with the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management to formalize a network of existing trails between Hot Creek Road and Mammoth Lakes.
