Council discusses pickleball funding, staff says city has "over $200,000" saved

City staff told the Gunnison City Council on March 4 that the city has more than $200,000 available—between donations and city reserves—for a project that would include pickleball and long basketball courts, and that the city recently received an additional award toward the effort.

Staff (Dennis, speaker 8) said, "So between, existing donations, city reserves, we have over $200,000 for that." The discussion included conflicting cost scenarios cited on the record: an engineer’s estimate described in the meeting as roughly $900,000, while the city engineer and staff expressed an expectation that the project could cost far less; one council speaker summarized the city engineer’s estimate as about $45,500.

Council members debated whether to delay a planned playground slide purchase to preserve funds for courts and related site work. Staff indicated that with existing donations and the recent award the city is positioned to continue planning, but emphasized that final costs will depend on detailed engineering and procurement decisions.

No vote was taken; council asked staff to continue refining cost estimates, confirm grant award details, and return with a formal funding plan for council consideration.