Pickleball is coming to Woodhull Township Park near Perry

The basketball area by the playground at Woodhull Township Park is getting a second use. At their Aug. 10 meeting, the township's park and recreation commission voted 4-0 to buy a portable pickleball net for that court and to paint pickleball lines on it, according to minutes posted by the township.

The motion came from Secretary Alyson Bawks and was seconded by Trustee Keith Young. The roll call recorded Trustee Adam Witzel, Young, Bawks and Chairman Katie Drury all voting aye. Treasurer Chelsea Moore was marked absent. The minutes do not say what the net will cost, who will paint the lines or when the court will be ready to play on.

The same meeting settled the ballfield weed question the commission has been working through since July. Drury moved to approve $825 from True Green to spray the ballfields three times at $275 each; Young seconded, and the roll call was again 4-0. The Current reported in August that the commission's July 20 minutes had it moving to spray the fields for roughly $200 to $250 — the approved plan is three treatments rather than one.

Park Facilities Manager Kirt Wilson gave his report to the board by text, the minutes say, and reported that True Green had contacted him and would be out at the end of August to spray. He also reported that the green doggie waste station at the park was damaged and that a new one is being ordered.

The money question from earlier in the summer is still open. No budget was presented Aug. 10. The minutes state that the $1,620 from the budget was for the recreation plan, and that Drury will be contacting the clerk, Carol, for more information about the transaction and to make sure purchases and expenses are approved by the park board first. That $1,620 line is the same figure the commission approved its budget "pending" in July, as we reported last month.

The township's five-year recreation plan — the document that governs how the park can chase state grant money — is still not in the commission's hands. The minutes say the commission is waiting on the finalized plan from ROWE before presenting it to the public, and that it is on track with its second-quarter goals. That plan has now slipped past a June target and a late-July hearing date in our earlier coverage.

The meeting adjourned at 7:35 p.m. The commission set its next meeting for Sept. 14 at 6:30 p.m. at the township hall, 7315 Beard Road; minutes from that meeting had not been posted as of Tuesday, so it is not yet on the record whether the net has been ordered or the ROWE plan delivered.