Pickleball complex moving forward after changes to drainage plans

Work on a pickleball complex at Dunn Stadium near the Bartholomew County 4-H Fairgrounds should be able to continue after county commissioners approved a change to the construction contract Monday.

The county is building a tournament quality, 12-court pickleball complex at the park, the only courts on the west side of Columbus. The goal was to finish the work by last fall at a cost of more than half a million dollars.

However, the project has been delayed while the city and county worked out agreement on drainage at the site, including input from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. Charlie Day with DLZ engineering said that the overlapping jurisdictions caused some delays to work out the required details. Those details, including improvements to water quality from runoff at the site, means changes needed to be made to the construction plans that were approved more than a year ago with Case Construction. Some items had to be added, others deleted and others changed, with the end result being an increased cost of about $23,000, Day said.

However, Day said he had been in contact with Case Construction and they were eager to get started on the project. After the commissioners approval at Monday’s meeting, he estimated work could begin as soon as this weeks.

Last year, the county saved some money on the overall project, by having county workers perform some of the initial prep work at the site.