Community Center Pickleball Courts Now Open

Pickleball and tennis players no longer have to share courts at the Cookeville Community Center as the new pickleball courts are complete.

Putnam County Parks and Rec Director Cody Maynard said all six courts are ready for play. Maynard said he has already heard great feedback from the community about the pickleball courts.

“We’ve got a couple touches to make on some fencing and a couple of areas on the court to be resealed,” Maynard said. “Lighting installed we are working toward the same goal with that we are working toward the same goal with that. It will be a four-pole system and it will be a little less complicated. Still waiting on the weather to dry up and get tied in and it should be a well-lit area also.”

Maynard said once the finishing touches are completed they will shift focus to renovating the tennis courts. Maynard said those renovations will likely not start till this summer.

“We are trying to work through getting around some of the middle school and high school tennis tournaments that go on there,” Maynard said. “And then we are gonna go through and fix some of the crack areas in there and resurface. On court in particular is pretty bad and we’ve got a lot of attention going into it and the weather’s just gotta warm up and dry up long enough to get in there and get it tackled.”

Maynard said the courts will be a big uplift to the community and community center.

“We already see quite a bit of traffic with the existing tennis courts and pickleball courts that are there,” Maynard said. “The six new pickleball courts. the traffic will hopefully continue and hopefully get some, maybe some classes going on explaining how to play pickleball.

Maynard said the Parks and Rec Department is also looking at building a basketball court on the backside of the pavilion. Maynard said the idea is to build a half-court area for pickup basketball games.

Maynard said the department is also looking into renovating the restrooms outside of the tennis courts.