Pateros tennis court renovation project back in the game for state funding

PATEROS – Earlier in mid-March, the city submitted a $565.000 application to the state Recreation and Conservation Office (RCO) Community Outdoor Athletic Facilities (COAF) Fund to completely renovate the city’s three tennis courts used for both tennis and pickleball,

The COAF is a new program that will provide grants to build, expand, or renovate outdoor athletic facilities. The Legislature provided $12 million with the potential for an additional $12 million in the 2025-27 biennium for a total of $24 million for the current grant round. 

The funding is allocated among five regions of the state according to population. Okanogan County is included among eight counties in the Northeast Region, with a 2024 allocation of $1,212,051 and a 2025 allocation of $2,424,102.

Grants range from $50,000 to $1.2 million.

The city website, pateros.com, states that the tennis courts were originally constructed with RCO funds in 1973. They remain generally sound and have been consistently maintained by the community over the past 50 years. The underlying pavement is shrinking and failing, and annual repairs are not keeping ahead of the cracking. Full replacement of the court subbase and surface will be a much better value for the facility. The repair costs to the courts and facility are climbing as the facility ages. 

The primary focus of the court renovation project is to repair the court surfaces for long term reduction in maintenance costs. Other needed repairs to the facility include:

• Electrical items, broken lights, replacing breaker boxes, electrical panels, and light controllers. 
• Fencing repairs and a practice wall. It is expected that repairs will be required to fencing during the process of replacing the courts.
• Some basic facility improvements, such as replacement of restroom fixtures, painting, and basic repairs.

RCO posted the results on May 10, and that posting indicated that Pateros missed the cut for the final selection round by a mere .03 points on the agency’s scoring system.

City Administrator Jord Wilson reported to the May 20 city council meeting that RCO later announced a scoring error on May 17 and that Pateros did indeed make the cut and is invited to compete in the final round of funding.

“That’s important for the city because there’s no way we can pay for those ourselves,” Wilson said.

Mike Maltais: 360-333-8483 or michael@ward.media