McMinnville Set To Renovate Rocket Park

The City of McMinnville set to renovate Rocket Park after receiving $115,000 in grant funding from a state Parks and Recreation grant.

McMinnville Grant Manager Lyndon Bussell said the TDEC funding will be used to renovate the park’s basketball court, build two pickleball courts, a pavilion, a kayak ramp, and pave a parking lot. Bussell said Rocket Park desperately needed improvements.

“Rocket Park is actually one of our oldest parks that we have here in McMinnville,” Bussell said. “You could tell that it really needed some updates to it and talking to the local citizens in the area they felt the same way that this park might have been a little neglected over the years.”

Bussell said the projects will be broken down into three phases with the first phase of renovations starting sometime this spring. Bussell said the renovations will provide better-exercising facilities for residents of McMinnville.

“We wanted to give the park a big facelift and make it more desirable for people to go to,” Bussell said. “Have actual parking for people to be at and with the addition of the kayak ramp hopefully bring tourists and other locals to the area to where they can enjoy our river.”

Bussell said the most anticipated part of the project is the pickleball courts.

“We have a huge pickleball following here in McMinnville,” Bussell said. “We believe that these pickleball courts combined with a few more that we are putting in elsewhere could lead to tournaments and workshops in the future.”

Bussell said the city will have a meeting in late September to sign a contract to finalize the funding. Bussell said the renovations could take up to three years to complete.