Tennis and pickleball courts at Aurora Park to see big improvements

Tennis courts and the new pickleball courts at Aurora Park are getting some major improvements. The Newton City Council this past week approved new lighting upgrades for both courts and then authorized the resurfacing of the existing tennis courts and the addition of two new courts.

According to city documents, the lighting system at the Aurora Park tennis courts is more than 20 years old and no longer meets the current standards for both recreational and competitive play. The lights are inefficient, costly to maintain and provide inconsistent coverage. The pickleball courts also lack any lighting.

Popularity of both sports has only grown, especially pickleball. But the lack of lighting for the pickleball courts — which were officially unveiled to the public last year after a successful park bond vote — restricts their use to daylight hours, which limits working individuals and organized leagues.

Two bids were received for the project: a $346,146 bid from Kline Electric of Des Moines and a $351,200 bid from Van Mannen Electric of Newton.

The engineer’s estimate for the project was $471,529, putting the project $125,383 under estimate. Council member Melissa Dalton worried if potential change orders would increase the low bid more than the next lowest, which is from a local contractor. City Administrator Matt Muckler offered an explanation.

“There are a million different scenarios, but basically if it’s something that we go out and it’s underneath the ground and no one could have known it … that’s when a change order comes,” Muckler said. “If it’s something to do with them not following the design, that’s why we have our staff.”

Probably one of the more common change orders is when the city accepts bids per unit price on materials like asphalt. Muckler said you can never guess to the exact amount of what will be needed, but the city is paying for the unit price. The council went on to approve the lighting project in a 5-0 vote.

Council member Joel Mills was absent for the vote.

Three bids were received for the tennis court resurface project. Minturn, Inc. of Brooklyn submitted the low bid of $667,683. Construct, Inc. of Marshalltown submitted a $712,110.90 bid and TK Concrete, Inc. of Pella submitted a $820,583 bid. The engineer estimated the project to be $850,000.

Currently, the city maintains six of the public tennis courts, which were last resurfaced back in 2009. Due to increased usage and natural wear, the courts have developed surface cracks, uneven playing areas and fading court lines, resulting in safety concerns and reduced play quality.

Council member Randy Ervin said the resurfacing and additional courts are well past due.

“It’s exciting to know we’ll be able to hold tennis tournaments — high school tennis tournaments — where varsity and (junior varsity) both play at the same location,” Ervin said. “We’re blessed here to have multiple coaches but in some schools they may only have one coach for both varsity and junior varsity.”

Extra courts will allow both sets of teams to play at Aurora Park.