Lovers of pickleball and tennis, rejoice.
The city of Kokomo is adding eight new dedicated pickleball courts and five new tennis courts to Cutler Park, 1600 E. Vaile Ave. The improvement project also calls for additional off-street parking just north of the courts.
The courts will replace the park’s most western youth ball field.
Bids are expected to be received later this year and construction to begin early next year, Torrey Roe, Kokomo parks superintendent, said Tuesday.
Roe said the city chose Cutler Park because it’s “centrally located” and close to Indiana 931.
The popularity of pickleball has exploded both in the U.S. and Kokomo. The city opened dedicated pickleball courts in 2019 at Bon Air Park in response to the growing popularity.
Other pickleball courts in the city include four dual-use courts at Highland Park; four dual-use, one dedicated court at Foster Park; and indoor courts at both the Carver Community Center and Kokomo Family YMCA.
The new tennis and pickleball courts come after the recently completed Kokomo Parks and Recreation Master Plan found residents wanted more dedicated and high-quality pickleball and tennis courts.
The city currently has public tennis courts at both Foster and Highland parks, but they are in poor condition and, thus, are not used much.
The master plan found residents of the community are driving to other towns to play tennis because of the poor condition of the city’s public tennis courts.
“The concern is that outside of the (Kokomo) school tennis facilities, which are not open to the public, there isn’t a good place to play tennis within the community, which is forcing individuals to drive outside of the city to seek these facilities out elsewhere,” the master plan states.
It also found repairs to the tennis courts at Foster Park are “challenging,” in part, due to the fact the courts are located within the floodplain.
