The city of Sedona anticipates putting out bids in March for the construction of eight new dedicated pickleball courts that would replace a portion of the north softball field at Posse Grounds Park. Assistant Director of Public Works Sandra Phillips said construction will likely commence in June.

“This is our first phase,” Phillips said. “Our goal is to get these courts in place and [the] lighting in place, nets and fences and the parking and then the bleachers and the benches or something the community could donate if they would like and we could do some plaques.

“Then the second phase is going to be improving some restrooms nearby, and potentially a shade structure that’s nearby are some of the things that we’re looking at that we could be adding in the future.”

Phillips said that residents expressed concern over drainage issues and dark sky lighting during the planning process.

“We made a conscientious effort,” Phillips said.

“We’re saving the trees for shade on the south side that already exists in between the two baseball [fields] … and then the parking lot, there’s going to be a pavement aisle with [decomposed granite]. So we’re doing a lot of DG and minimizing our impact as much as possible.” The project will add two parking areas with about 50 spaces, although the Americans with Disabilities Act-compliant spaces “will have to be concrete,” Parks and Recreation Manager Josh Frewin said.

Department staff believe the popularity of pickleball has been increasing while the popularity of softball has been in decline in recent years.

“On days where both a morning and afternoon/ evening session are offered, there can be over 60 players on a single day,” the July 11 Sedona City Council agenda stated. “Dedicated courts with lights are needed; the current shared use causes conflict due to pickleball and tennis players both seeking to use the same space. In addition, the limited number of courts discourages use due to the wait time.”

The Parks and Recreation website states that currently, “the west tennis court is striped with four pickleball courts and available for shared use on a first-come, first-served basis from sunrise to 10 p.m. The courts have lighting for evening play. The tennis net is always up, while the pickleball nets are available inside the orange lockbox for setup as desired. The code to access the lockbox key is 1985.”

The play schedule for the pickleball courts through Tuesday, April 30, is:

Monday: 9 to 11 a.m.

Tuesday, Thursday and Friday: 9 to 11 a.m., 1 to 3 p.m. and 6 to 9:45 p.m.

Saturday: 1 to 3 p.m. and 6 to 9:45 p.m. Play times will be updated when the new courts are completed.

“We do have a couple volunteers who loosely oversee play during POP [pickleball organized play] hours currently such as Julie Krasemann and Christine Sturgeon, among a couple others,” Frewin said. “Part of that setup a few years back when POP was started was that the Sedona Pickleball Club that has members that play on our courts and other area courts did a ‘fundraiser’ for the balls where people could donate for the club and POP program to have a large supply of pickleballs available for use.”

One of the department’s goals is to have a bin of about 450 balls, which it is trying to achieve through a suggested donation of $10 annually from club members.

“[Krasemann] collects these donations from those who would like to donate as part of the Sedona Pickleball Club, separate from Parks and Recreation, and keeps a stock of those balls in our Parks and Rec storage box for their Sedona Pickleball Club,” Frewin said. “However, each time balls are purchased, we get a notice of how many were purchased that will be stored with Parks and Recreation at the court storage box, as well as she maintains the spreadsheet of who has donated for their club records.”

The volunteers that run the program aren’t officially affiliated with the city, but “they’ll email us if there’s any problems or email us numbers of how many were playing that kind of thing, but limited oversight really,” Frewin said.

Editorial Clarification: Since this story was published in the print publication on Friday, March 8 Christine Sturgeon reached out to Sedona Red Rock News to delineate her role.

“Because I represent a large non profit organization,” Sturgeon said. “I cannot represent another entity unless I make it clear that I work as a volunteer so I would separate my role as ambassador vs city volunteer. For example, I volunteer to teach pickleball for the College and not the City. I do not represent the City at this time as a volunteer instructor. And the College requests I be a facilitator for the college and not a volunteer for USA Pickleball. Either way as a volunteer or a facilitator I still donate my time to teach.”