El Cajon City Council unanimously approved the Parks and Recreation Department to move forward with four grant requests for one new park, the refurbishing one other park and two community centers on March 9. Director of Parks and Recreation Frank Carson said the grants are a 15 part application and fall under the City’s Proposition 68, which authorized $4 billion in general obligation bonds for state and local parks, environmental protections projects, water and flood protection projects. Carson put the presentation of grants in order of qualifications for approval.
“We can submit as many applications as we want. We were very targeted on how we did this because of the public input that is required in the grant process,” said Carson.
Top on the list is a new park at the old animal shelter next to Fire Station 9, also the Heartland Fire Training Facility. The plan for the Heartland Pickleball, Fitness Area & Playground is proposed to have a fire station themed style playground space. Carson said its long term goals for all playgrounds is to add adult fitness activities, so parks are more inclusive for youth and adults. He said this grant has the highest chance for approval because it is a new park, which automatically gives it about 15 points higher on the grant application.
“Why pickleball? Through our public input process, we had many active older adults requesting more pickleball. Pre-COVID, we had an indoor pickleball court at the Bostonia Community Center,” said Carson. “If you look at our surrounding East County communities, La Mesa, Santee, Lakeside, they all have outdoor pickleball courts and they are thriving. This is not just the fasting growing sport for ages 60 plus, and it is not just something that is cool right now.”
Carson said this is a $2.8 million grant request, the new park will be in a disadvantaged community, and the acreage per 1,000 people is at zero, the median household income is at $55,301, so the project meets all the criteria required by the state.
The Wells Park Pickleball Complex & Arena Soccer Complex is a $3.4 million grant request. Carson said the main reason for renovation of the park is in the department’s more than a dozen community meetings, the larger portion of the community is looking for a more capable access.
“This park has the former teen center in place where we could add in the pickleball court,” said Carson. “One side of the building would be soccer and basketball courts and the other side would be pickleball. We would see this as more of a regional draw, especially if we were to add in the arena soccer court, we imagine four courts with artificial turf.”
Carson said the Wells Park is not necessarily disadvantaged, but the surrounding community is, so it places the project in a higher level as well.
“A negative on the part of the parks and recreation department, sometimes we are too youth focused, so we definitely want to listen to our active adult community when they kept pressing for more active pickleball courts,” said Carson.
The Bostonia Community Center and the Kennedy Community Center are the only two out of five community centers that have not been renovated.
The City is looking for a $2.3 million grant to upgrade the Bostonia Community Center. Some of the area is not disadvantaged, but there are disadvantaged communities within a five mile radius.
“Renovations would be tailored more to environmental design and proposing to also include solar,” said Carson. “They want us to improve energy efficiency, and if we were awarded a gymnasium, which we do not have at any of our city facilities right now, with solar it would be much more cost effective.”
The Kennedy Community Center is a $2.3 million grant request.
“We are really focusing on the building itself. The playground there was installed in 2009, this past fiscal year it got a whole new playground resurfacing and the skate park is about a little over 20 years old, so that has been doing well. There has been some renovation done,” said Carson.
Carson said this project meets eligibility by a “pin drop,” but that there is a severely disadvantaged community nearby, so it still qualifies.
“We would look at aesthetics, roofing and including solar with this project,” he said. “The goal is to get grants for solar at our community centers one way or another so that we can be more energy efficient.”
District 4 Council member Phil Ortiz said he was happy to see the outdoor pickleball court, but especially the outdoor fitness equipment.
“Bill Beck City Park’s outdoor fitness equipment is fantastic that uses your own body weight,” said Ortiz. “Super innovated. I would like to add my support for that type of equipment because I use it frequently.”
District 2 Council member Michell Metschel said she believes that the pickleball courts are a great addition to the community.
“I love having a park down by Heartland because we surely need a park up in District 2 and that is close to District 2 and hopefully in the future park more up on the north end towards the Mollison area,” she said.
