White Township reopens Kennedy-King Park pickleball courts

“We started (the resurfacing project) Thursday, (May 11),” Shaffer said. “We might’ve had one rain delay in there, and then we had some high wind issues that prevented us from doing some work because it was blowing our materials around. But all told, I think we spent maybe six working days.”

Supervisors initially planned to resurface the pickleball courts after roughly eight years of use, but with pickleball in such high demand, the courts’ surfaces wore out in only seven years, faster than supervisors expected.

The Indiana Pickleball Club asked if they could work with the township to expedite the resurfacing project, and the township agreed. After the pickleball club raised roughly half the funds needed to finance the project, supervisors decided to move forward with resurfacing the courts a year early.

Shaffer said given the courts’ heavy usage, the recreation department will likely start planning to resurface the courts earlier in future budgets.

“Our process on courts, courts should last somewhere probably between six and 10 years, and a lot of that depends on the usage level,” Shaffer said. “So, knowing how busy those court surfaces are, we’ll probably be more proactive about being closer to the six (year mark), if not on the six (year mark), and then evaluate thereafter.”

Also Wednesday, White Township manager Chris Anderson gave an update on 2023 building permits. The township has issued a total of 58 building permits this year, receiving $63,088.45 in revenue from building permit fees.

The township also has 18 building permits in process, with a projected revenue of $125,128.16 in additional building permit fees. Although the township has not collected fees from building permits in process, the township is on track to surpass 2021 and 2022 building permit revenue, which came in at $143,484.43 and $95,051.26 for the whole year, respectively.

In other news Wednesday, supervisors made a number of announcements, including:

• The White Township Stewardship Committee created a draft outline in preparation of developing a stewardship plan. The draft outline, which Anderson suspects could be finalized within the next month, looks at local natural areas, management philosophies, policies, and more, according to Anderson.

“It’s basically almost two pages, and it lays out some ideas,” Anderson said. “It starts with a mission statement. It goes into some of the purposes and goals, it looks at some of the committee work they did this past 16 or so months, and then it kind of looks at sections of what they want the stewardship plan to look like.”

• Spring yard waste curbside collection ends Friday. White Township residents can take yard waste and place it in an “orderly manner” behind the curb or ditch line of public road. Only residential yard waste will be collected — branches, brush and garden waste. No grass clippings, paper, glass, plastic, cans or garbage will be collected. Bagged or boxed materials weighing greater than 50 pounds per bag or box will not be collected. More information can be found on White Township’s website at https://www.white township.org/spring-yard waste-collection, or by calling the township office at (724) 463-8585.

“Our crews are out every day, and when they drive by and they see a pile, they’ll pick it up,” Anderson said. “If you see yours isn’t being picked up, please call the office.”