Additional basketball court coming to Eastpointe

EASTPOINTE — A conversation at an Eastpointe City Council meeting diverted from approving a contract to repave a parking lot to a conversation about adding another basketball court.

At its Feb. 4 meeting, while approving a contract to repave parking lots at the Urban Seed Community Garden on Nine Mile Road and at the Memorial Park basketball court on 10 Mile Road, City Council decided to add a second basketball court to the park at the expense of a smaller parking lot.

“When we had constructed that first basketball court there, we made sure that it was constructed as it is so that there is room to put a second court there in the future,” said City Engineer Ryan Kern, of Anderson, Eckstein & Westrick.

While there was some discussion regarding the cost and material that would be used, Councilman Harvey Curley said he was in favor of adding the second court to Memorial Park as long as the court that was already planned at Shamrock Park, which is north of Nine Mile Road on Lexington Avenue, would move forward.

There are basketball courts on the west side of the city so adding the court at Shamrock Park would help take care of the kids on that side of the city, he said.

“We don’t do enough for the kids of this city. … I would not have a problem building (another) one next to the one we have now,” he said. “Right now, you go over to the one that we have and you’ll find 25 to 30 kids there waiting to play. It’s really amazing.”

Councilman Rob Baker said he would also be in favor of adding the second court at Memorial Park and reducing the size of the parking lot if it would save the city money.

“I don’t know how the rest of council feels, but my thought was if it would save us money to put in a second court and a smaller lot, I believe that’s the better way of going,” he said.

Eastpointe Finance Director Randall Blum stated that adding plans for a third court — meaning the second court at Memorial Park — would be feasible but they would need to amend the budget. However, they would need an amendment to repave the parking lot at the community garden, he said.

In the end, City Council voted unanimously to move forward on getting bids for pricing on adding a second basketball court and a smaller parking lot to Memorial Park. They also voted unanimously to award the contract for paving the Urban Seed parking lot to Luigi Ferdinandi and Sons Cement Co., in the amount of $115,508.76.