The Washington City Council held a lengthy discussion on a grant proposal at their most recent meeting, which resulted in a unanimous vote of approval.
A group led by Keith Lazar submitted a request for the city’s endorsement to apply for a $5,000 spring small grant from the Washington County Riverboat Foundation to renovate the existing tennis courts near Case Field into dual purpose courts for pickleball. The community group has received a bid of $57,975 from L.L. Pelling for this work, which does not include pickleball nets or benches. The group hopes to keep their total project cost below $60,000.
The Washington Iowa Betterment Foundation and the Brinton Trust have each committed $10,000 payable over three years, and City Administrator Brent Hinson has assisted them in applying for a $25,000 Wellmark grant, which the City of Sigourney received earlier this year for a similar project. Hinson mentioned the cost to the city could be around $16,000, and they have $25,000 in their budget that could be used. The first vote for the proposal failed on a vote of 3-2. Council Member Steven Gault said he voted no because of concerns of starting one project before another is finished, and Council Member Elaine Moore spoke of concerns of the city’s current soccer fields not having water, restrooms, or benches. Council Member Danielle Pettit-Majewski said she was disappointed by the vote, “How does voting ‘no’ do anything except take an improvement away from our community and get dollars invested back into our park. We are saying like you’re going to write a grant that’s going to enhance a community good. How does saying no to this help anything else?”
Pettit-Majewski added that without these improvements, Washington residents will go to another community to play pickleball, and Hinson mentioned that he has never turned down a request nor received one for the soccer fields. After further discussion Gault made a motion to reconsider the decision, which passed unanimously. Pettit-Majewski then made another motion to approve the grant application request, which the council approved.