Basketball out. Pickleball in. Bay Village removes hoops following altercation. | KRDO

By Mike Holden

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    BAY VILLAGE, Ohio (WEWS) — Back in July of 2023, the city of Bay Village temporarily shut down its basketball court in Reese Park after an altercation there—when a gunshot was fired.

No one was injured, and city officials confirmed this was an isolated incident.

A half-basketball court has since been constructed near the restrooms behind the courts.

Some city leaders said this change was due in part to a surge in interest for more pickleball in the community—coupled with the prior incident.

“There’s a great demand. We have four courts down at Reese Park—we converted to tennis courts a few years ago. And the residents need more. So, the sport continues to grow. The younger kids, the children of this community are now playing,” Dan Enovitch, Director of Parks and Rec City of Bay Village, said.

The transformation is nearly complete.

While some caution tape is still in place—crews are finalizing work to transform the former full basketball court into four more pickleball courts.

Bay Village’s Mayor made a decision to shut down the full court basketball court following an incident at the court where a gunshot was fired last Summer.

A councilperson confirmed the administration wanted to convert the court to pickleball courts regardless of a vote.

During a March meeting, the mayor previously said having a half-court at the park was a compromise.

Several months back— in a 6-1 vote council authorized the mayor to enter into an agreement for the conversion.

The cost is more than $35,000 and is covered through a grant.

“We’re excited. We’re looking forward to meeting the needs of the residents. We get a lot of feedback from residents regarding the pickleball courts,” Enovitch said.

While the city says this will benefit everyone of all ages, some residents say the timing is not great with so many students on break.

“You know, it’s unfortunate for the Bay residents, especially the high school and college kids coming back because it just makes one less court for us to be able to play on and other than this court, you really only have Bradley that they care about,” Owen Cooper, a Bay Village resident, said.

They’ve even called this a band-aid effort to erase the prior incident.

“It took them awhile, but they’re finally deciding to just not worry about that and just turn the pickleball court.

It’s so people don’t come from like a lot of Cleveland State students would come here ,and I think they wanted to get rid of that,” Cooper said.

The project should be completed in a few weeks.

News 5 will continue to Follow-Through on the status.

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