The contract for the pickleball court project was recently awarded by the Jefferson City Council.

At their most recent meeting on June 11th, the Council approved Caliber Concrete of Adair as the contractor with their bid of $217,301 to install two post-tension concrete pickleball courts with lighting at Russell Park. Then with the engineering costs from Bolton and Menk, the total for the project was $254,301. City Administrator Scott Peterson says the fundraising that was done for this project totaled about $240,000. He notes that the Council approved paying the additional expense of $13,726.

“We do have some additional revenues, again these are non-tax dollars, that can be devoted to the project. Several years ago the Radebaugh family had made a nice contribution to the city of some funds to be used for rec purposes. So half of that would be paid by those funds and then half of it would be paid through the city’s allocation of Grow Greene (County Gaming Corporation) funds.”   

Jefferson Parks and Recreation Director Denny Hammen says the fundraising was done through a devoted group of community members with the pickleball committee, and they raised $82,575 from donations and pledges, and they received $118,000 through a Grow Greene County Gaming Corporation Grant (GGCGC), on top of the $40,000 initial donation by the same Radebaugh family. Hammen appreciates how effective the pickleball committee has been with this project.

“They did all of the leg work of going out and getting the donations to begin with from the community. Then filling out the application for the (GGCGC) grant and making sure that they follow through with the whole process, which they did a wonderful job, obviously.”  

Peterson adds that construction is slated to begin this August and it is anticipated to be completed by Thanksgiving.