County approves bid to convert tennis courts to pickleball

Keystone Heights City Council members play pickleball after cutting a ribbon for the Sunrise Park facility in 2021.

During its Sept. 13 meeting, Clay County commissioners approved a $333,444 bid to convert the tennis courts at Twin Lakes Park east of Keystone Heights and the W.E. Varnes Park on College Drive in Orange Park to pickleball.

Commissioner Betsy Condon said the planned conversion is bringing excitement to the Lake Region.

“They have 35 to 40 people who play pickleball twice a week and they cannot wait for that to get going,” she said.

Condon added that the bidding process was delayed while the county searched for a contractor that met the requirements of the American Rescue Plan, which the county is using to fund the conversions.

In 2021, Keystone Heights officials opened a city-owned pickleball court at Sunrise Park.   

More on this story later from the Telegraph-Times-Monitor