Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
The town of Farmington’s basketball court revitalization project is back to its original parameters after taking a turn into new territory, including the idea of moving the court to an alternate site.
After much discussion of the matter at the June 17 city council meeting and further investigation by new project chairperson Noreen Ewing, the court will remain where it is in the city park, although in a curtailed, less expensive version.
“We were looking at a very top-end court,” said Ewing. “I think we just need to come down a bit and do what our community can afford.”
The original plan was to install all-new concrete for the court. Instead, Ewing said the town is taking bids to pave asphalt over the existing slab of concrete.
“We’ll be doing the contractor work ourselves,” she said.
In turn, an impromptu work party June 22 followed by another work session the following Sunday resulted in a group of residents removing the lower fence, brush, broken-up concrete and root damage.
“It’s now ready to be inspected and to start reconstruction,” said Ewing.
As a result of the work, the court’s length was reduced from 100 feet to 86 feet in length to help with drainage.
The concrete was broken up by volunteers with a concrete saw, a backhoe, a city tractor and former mayor Royce Johnson’s tractor with a forklift attachment.
Once broken, the concrete pieces were taken to resident Mark Hellinger’s property, in a deal with the town where he agreed to pay the going rate for it, in turn saving the city the cost of dumping the excess concrete at a landfill.
The slabs were taken to Hellinger’s using the city snowplow truck.
New bids
Earlier, on June 25, Scott Williams from Poe Asphalt stopped to take a look at the site of the court.
Ewing said Poe has since submitted a bid and she expects other pavers will turn in bids in the next week, saying she believes there is enough money in the budget now to complete the project.
“We won’t know for sure if there is enough money until the bids come in,” she said.
Ewing said that the next step, to be accomplished in a third volunteer work session, is to place four-inch perforated drain tile, a kind of pipe, along the edges of the court, underneath a cover of gravel.
This will allow for a new drainage system.
Ewing said these items are being paid for by individual donations to the Farmington court revitalization effort.
The next work session will be Saturday, with work on the drain tile and clearing more brush.
“We’re getting a lot of prep work done that needed to be done,” Ewing said.
While the adults run the machinery-related work at the court, a group of Farmington kids wanted to get involved too. They have organized a car wash and bake sale for Sunday, July 21, 1 to 3 p.m. in the park.
For his part, Mayor Ron Dugan said he is pleased with the latest developments.
“I’m really happy about this direction,” he said. “The asphalt part is good, it will be fully funded by the money we have available. And I think it’s better for the community.”
The goal
The matter of revitalizing the court by Harvest Festival, and Ewing’s appointment as chairman of the Basketball Court Rehabilitation Project Committee, came up during the city council meeting June 17.
After comments from Dugan, city council members and residents, the council voted to appoint Ewing, designating her role to explore court size and location options and court surface types.
Mayor Dugan gave the initial update on a re-bidding process in which contractors included estimates for removing the existing court. Dugan said that two of the seven original bidders re-bid and the lowest was Palouse River Rock of Colfax at $29,400.
He went on to say that an estimated charge of $3,500 to $4,000 for removal of the old court left the project $7,000 short, not including an estimated $2,100 for two backboards, two baskets, a tennis net and tennis poles.
The mayor then pointed out issues that had been brought up regarding the existing site, including proximity to the town maintenance shop and a residential property, an old septic tank at an unknown location between the E.M.S. shed and maintenance shop, low-hanging electrical wires, a power line running just west of the court and the close property line on the east with the residential property.
Dugan then pointed out possible alternative sites for the court, including on the existing baseball field, which was donated to the town in the 1980s by the late Ella Ewing.
Noreen Ewing, a council member and Ella Ewing’s daughter-in-law, reiterated what her husband, John, had said about his mother’s wishes, saying that although her passion was baseball, she would approve of the property being used for anything to benefit the children of Farmington.
Noreen then said that she was concerned over the type of soil on the baseball field and whether it would hold a four-inch concrete slab.
Councilmembers then expressed opinions about leaving the court where it is and moving it to the baseball field.
Councilman Dave Baker requested to hear citizens’ comments.
Junior Hurley, in the audience made a comment saying that as an “old-timer” in Farmington, he had seen where something like the baseball field is given up for a basketball court and is gone forever.
Sandy Hansen agreed and suggested building a half-court basketball court at the existing location, using asphalt as the surface to keep it affordable.
Finally, Mayor Dugan said that the discussion that night was not going to lead to an end point in which everyone agreed on how to move forward.
So the council appointed Ewing as chair of the new committee.
Last September, the town received a $14,000 Washington State Community Economic Revitalization Board (CERB) grant to restore the court, which Dugan followed this spring with 250 letters seeking donations. A total of 38 people or companies responded, bringing in another $6,000.
The hoops at the basketball court were taken down in May 2012 due to insurance concerns that the court’s cracked concrete was a “trip hazard.”
The court was originally built as a donation from the local Kiwanis Club.
At a meeting May 20, the council discussed a goal to have the court ready for the second annual Farmington Harvest Festival in September.
“I would hope so,” said Ewing of the goal. “I’m pushing for that.”
Dugan said he thinks they’ll reach the goal, but indicated it will all be within reason.
“If you pour two gallons of water in a one-gallon jug, you know what happens,” he said. “You just can’t take an arbitrary day and say we’ll be completed by then. We’re not going to do something stupid just to finish it by Harvest Festival.”
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
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