Paso Robles City Council approves new pickleball courts, park improvements
New pickleball courts are on their way to Paso Robles, the City Council decided Wednesday night.
Councilmembers awarded a $3.2 million contract to JJ Fisher Construction for a plan to make improvements to Sherwood Park, including the construction of seven new pickleball courts, new bathrooms and a parking lot. The council greenlit a budget of just over $4 million for the project.
But to do it, the council decided to divert some of the funding from another city project — a decision some community members took issue with.
Over $1 million of the budget was derived from development impact fees with another $830,000 coming from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds that were committed to the project in 2021.
To source the remaining $2 million needed for the project, the council decided to redirect $2 million in ARPA funds from the city’s South Vine Street bridge and annexation project into the pickleball budget.
ARPA funds, which were allocated to cities during the pandemic, must be under contract obligation by the end of the year in order to be used, city officials told councilmembers.
But the decision garnered some pushback from community members. While around 15 people showed up at the meeting in support of the pickleball project, a few dissenters addressed council.
Linda George, a Paso Robles City Council candidate slated to lose her election, voiced her concerns about the project’s budget — but she first took advantage of her time at the podium to throw jabs at city manager Ty Lewis, who was set to return to work on Wednesday after taking a medical leave due to stress he says was caused by Councilman Chris Bausch creating a hostile workplace and leading a plot to oust him.
George was one of several people named by Lewis as taking part in the effort.
“Breaking news, city manager returns to work,” George said, addressing the council and referring to The Tribune’s coverage of Lewis’ return.
George told the council that Lewis had been “harassing” her on social media for the last 48 hours. She occasionally threw the phrase “pickleball court” into her testimony on Lewis to avoid being reprimanded by staff for straying from the public comment item.
“That’s fine if you’re going to bring the city manager back, you gotta put a — get him under control. Pickleball court,” George said. “I think its disgusting what you guys did, You paid him to election interfere. And he’s still harassing the people he says are harassing him on social media, so something needs to change.”
It was not immediately clear what harassment George had experienced from Lewis.
George then went on to voice her opposition to the pickleball court project. She raised concerns that the city would use money generated by the city’s half-cent sales tax measure — intended for road repairs — to “backfill” the funds redirected to the pickleball project.
Interim city manager Chris Huot and city treasurer Ryan Cornell denied this claim, saying the city would need council approval to use I-24 funds for either project.
Ultimately, the council approved the $4 million budget and contract with JJ Fisher Construction with two separate 4-1 votes.
Bausch cast the lone votes against both motions.
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