The Goshen City commission received just two bids with nearly a $70,000 price gap for a planned multi-sport court in Springmeadow Park.
In a 4-1 vote at a special-called meeting Aug. 2, the commission approved the more expensive option, citing concerns over the plastic court material included in the lower bid, along with other design features.
For several months, the commission planned and solicited bids for the project, which in its current iteration includes a pickleball court and a separate half with a basketball goal. The future site of the court is plotted on the top crest of the field behind the Springmeadow Park pavilion.
The higher bid from Louisville-based E-Z Construction came in at $162,145 for a standard four-coat color surface and perimeter fence. Mayor Bobby Thacker also clarified later in the meeting that the price could be lowered if the commission should opt for concrete over asphalt and $2,500 to leave the leftover dirt.
The lower bid came in at $94,84 from “Sport Court,” a company specializing in modular plastic tiles that fit together with interlocking plastic edges, laid over concrete. The Sport Court installation bid for Goshen did not include a perimeter fence.
In the early minutes of the meeting, Mayor Bobby Thacker said the $162,000 bid from E-Z construction took him off guard.
“I was quite surprised with [that number],” he said. “I bid out a basketball court without the goals and just the asphalt and painting the lines was $33,000 for a full-length basketball court. For them to come out with $160,000, I’m just wondering what’s in there. They didn’t really itemize anything.”
Discussion then turned to the Sport Court material and its functionality compared to asphalt or concrete.
Although Thacker relayed that Sport Court is the official material used by the Professional Pickleball Association(PBA), commissioner Jeff Mangan said in his own research that “high level” pickleball players do not prefer it.
“I talked to the owner of the Springhurst Tennis Club[in Louisivlle],” he said. “They had Sport Court on their pickleball courts and they ripped it out. Everybody hated it and didn’t want to play on it. The ball doesn’t bounce correctly and it will hit the seams.”
Mangan also called the perimeter fence an essential feature for pickleball players.
“I know people who play pickleball at a very, very high level and I talked to them about the fence,” he said. “They said you want the fence [otherwise] they’ll be chasing the ball all over the place.”
Mangan, along with commissioner William Rolfes, also drew attention to what they called the potential “slickness” of the Sport Court material.
Rolfes said a representative with the firm admitted that much to him in discussions about the material.
“…She admitted herself that it gets slick,” Rolfes said.
Rolfes, like Thacker, called the $162,000 price tag of the competing bid “pretty high,” but said it’s affordable with the city’s American Rescue Plan Act funding.
Commissioner Douglas Morales described the current price of asphalt prohibitively expensive and urged fellow commissioners to opt for concrete.
Morales also called plastic surfaces “terrible” based on personal experience playing basketball.
Commissioner Todd Hall floated the idea of opting for the cheaper Sport Court option and later removing the material to use the underlying concrete.
“If we hate it, could we pull it up and have somebody come out and paint it?” Hall asked.
Thacker said that wouldn’t be an option because Sport Court specializes in Sport Court material.
The commission eventually voted 4-1, with Morales voting no, to approve the $162,000 E-Z Construction bid with a sub-motion to opt for the cheaper concrete option over asphalt. Morales abstained on the sub-motion.