By Charlotte Caldwell
SIDNEY – The Sidney Recreation Board discussed the future of the Sidney Amateur Baseball Commission (SABC) and the organization of the Shelby County Pickleball Association at a meeting on May 1.
Dalton Bollinger, the owner of Bollinger Baseball and Softball Instruction, and Chad Guey with SABC were in attendance at the meeting to discuss the future of SABC after the organization experienced the lowest number of sign-ups this year. The SABC board spoke to Bollinger about taking over the organization, and Bollinger suggested tactics to raise participant numbers like baseball camps, coach’s and umpiring clinics, and bringing in college players and coaches. Parks Director Duane Gaier is working with the Law Director David Busick to create a contract with the city and Bollinger.
The Shelby County Pickleball Association was formed on April 13 and officers were selected. More information can be found on their website. The pickleball courts are scheduled to be completed by July 7 and the association is seeking donations to put in lighting for the courts. The group currently has a donation of $25,000 from Emerson for the lighting.
The parks and recreation staff mentioned that OHM and PROS Consulting will present the parks and recreation master plan at 3 p.m. on June 5 before June’s recreation board meeting, and the board will vote to approve the plan at the regularly scheduled meeting.
The board also discussed changing the start time of its meetings to 4 p.m. since City Council now starts at 5:30 p.m. so the two meetings don’t overlap. The discussion was tabled until the next meeting.
The board’s officers were rotated at the meeting, as the board does every May, so Mary Jannides will be the chair and Oshae Peart will be the secretary.
At the end of the meeting, member Ed Thomas suggested setting up a table with parks and recreation information at the 75th Anniversary Celebration Car Show in June, and Gaier said he would be willing to set up the table. Gaier also informed the board that there was damage done to the Tawawa Park entrance sign and parks and recreation staff cleaned it up.
The next recreation board meeting will be held on Monday, June 5, at 4:15 p.m. in City Hall’s council chambers.
