Manteca Mayor Gary Singh is not in favor of removing existing baseball fields to build pickle ball courts.

The City Council was handed a scorching political hot potato earlier this year when a national consultant hired by Manteca to update the municipal parks plan identified “underutilized” facilities that could be converted to other uses.

One of them was the lighted baseball field at Marion Elliott Park.

They recommended it be converted into pickle ball courts and additional parking on the strength of community input from those that bothered to participate in meetings aimed at finding out what residents want.

The consultant also used skewed “usage data” given the COVID epidemic hammered Manteca Little League — one of three Little League organizations —particularly hard, forcing them to struggle for a few years.

The city — in order to move forward with study needed to update the park fees assessed on growth that were last increased a decade ago — did not modify the facilities master plan list.

As a result, the pickle ball court project was used as a premise for the fee increase that went from the existing $3.99 per square foot for a new home to $8.51 per square foot.

And just like with other growth fees, often times cited projects such as a new library never get built.

Singh said the only way pickle ball courts, as far as he was concerned, could ever be built at Marion Elliott Park is when the swimming pool is removed.

A new swimming pool could be built elsewhere in Manteca as part of Measure Q bond projects.

Two different studies over the years have shown the Lincoln Pool is woefully inadequate for present day needs in terms of size, layout, and facilities.

The bottom line is the ongoing need to replace components are not cost effective and to make it into the needs of a modern-day community pool by basically demolishing it and starting from scratch is cost prohibitive and likely wouldn’t work as effectively as possible in the available space without the loss of nearby amenities such as the picnic shelter and playground.

Singh notes city, outside of potentially altering the preliminary plans for the proposed 60-acre community park in north Manteca, has plans to include multi-use fields that include baseball fields in the Family Entertainment Zone as a buffer from the wastewater treatment plant.

On the eastern end of the buffer is Big League Dreams sports complex.

The operator of city-owned BLD complex over the years have expressed the need for overflow baseball fields.

That means fields located there could be used during weekdays for local recreation and then for a combination of local and BLD use during weekends.

Singh said the city is pushing for pickle ball courts in new neighborhood parks.

One that is coming is coming up for sure is on the Tannehill Drive extension west of South Main Street.

A new neighborhood there will have “two” neighborhood parks. A larger one with playing field/open area, playgrounds, picnic shelter and such a smaller one on an odd parcel across the street that will accommodate several pickle ball courts.

Singh noted such a strategy means the pickle ball courts would be easier to excess instead of being at one centralized location.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com