New pickleball courts, repaving among potential projects in Sylvan Lake

SYLVAN LAKE — As a small, outdoor community, recreation is a big deal in Sylvan Lake.

A decision to make one of the two tennis courts at the Sylvan Lake Community Center into four pickleball courts has gotten the attention of some residents.

“There’s residents who are extremely happy about that, and then some that are a little bummed — the tennis players don’t like losing a court,” Sylvan Lake City Council member and former Mayor Ben Clarke said. “The pickleball players have been organizing like crazy. They have a group of about 60 people in the neighborhood that play, and they need more court time, so we’re going to have four permanent courts for pickleball. So that’s kind of a big deal, I guess.”

Clarke said pickleball is “extremely popular.”

The plan is to find a way to satisfy both tennis and pickleball players.

“I believe we’re going to implement a scheduling thing to help alleviate any problems with scheduling,” Clarke said.

According to Clarke, the tennis courts have been falling into disrepair.

He estimated that it will cost $38,000 to fix the courts, repaint them and put in the four pickleball courts, with the money expected to come from the city’s general fund.

The project is expected to be completed this summer.

From Clarke’ perspective, one of the highlights for the city last year was a repaving project that took place at Pontiac Drive and Inverness Street.

He said that one of this year’s goals is to continue repaving. After paying off a previous bond, he believes the city is now in a more flexible position.

“Rather than relying on a bond where we’re going to be having to do a bunch of repaving in a short period of time and repaving all the streets, we can now be more flexible and pay them as needed, which is what we did with this last paving project,” Clarke said. “We had money (and) we were able to get it done quickly.”

Clarke estimated that the paving project at Pontiac Drive and Inverness Street was done within a month.

He said that Sylvan Lake is updating its city streets.

“We have such a strong pedestrian-residential walking community … so that’s good for everyone in the city,” Clarke said.

Clarke said that the Orchard Lake Road corridor, which stretches about a quarter mile in the city, is currently a light industrial zone. However, he thinks that there is a chance to attract some new businesses along the corridor, and he wants the city to be open to opportunities.

“We do see that having possibility for redevelopment into something more commercial,” Clarke said.

Clarke said that the lakes and parks in Sylvan Lake are a “huge” draw, and although he doesn’t expect it in the immediate future, a parks millage could eventually appear on the ballots of Sylvan residents.

Revising the community events application process has also been on the city’s radar.

“We’ve been kind of tweaking that, so that, hopefully, we have more community events in the city,” Clarke said. “The overarching goal is to make the Community Center more community focused (and) less rental focused. … We’ve set aside Thursdays so that people can’t rent the Community Center on Thursdays, and it stays open for community events — and those are like the food trucks, the outdoor concerts and that sort of stuff that we’ve been doing for the past few years.”

Current Sylvan Lake Mayor Jim Cowper described last year as a “wonderful” summer of boating and community life for residents. In an email he lauded the City Council, administrators and police.

As for this year, he noted welcoming businesses to work with the city as Orchard Lake Road is resurfaced.

“It’s a unique area because you’re at such close proximity to so many places, but it has a feeling like you’re almost Up North at a destination cottage from time to time when you’re on the lake and you can zone out of how much we really are in a cityscape,” Clarke said. “The home values are soaring — lot (of) new construction.”