Construction on a long-awaited 12-court pickleball facility on Okanagan Landing Road is ahead of schedule.
“Things are in full swing at Marshall Fields,” said project manger and Vernon Pickelball Club co-chair Don Friesen.
“The whole place is trench and we’ve got all the infrastructure.”
Friesen said volunteers and workers have completed the move of a 45,000 volt underground hydro line, completed all of the irrigation requirements, which included installing 15,000 lineal feet of control wire, and dug 2,000 feet of trench and laid another 2,000 feet of heavy underground piping.
Construction began three weeks ago and Friesen says he is anticipating reaching the “paving stage” within two weeks. Friesen added that the original projections for the project was a price tag of $1.4 million and at this point, he hopes to complete it for $600,000.
The project has been in the works for the past two years while the Vernon Pickleball Club sought support and funding.
The Okanagan Wealth Advisors/HollisWealth signed on as a lead corporate sponsor for the facility, as per a five-year-deal announced at the club’s annual general meeting in June. Aside from this new sponsorship, the club is funding the facility and has a $300,000 grant from the Greater Vernon Advisory Committee.
