New basketball and pickleball courts set to open in Dolgeville

By Dave Warner

Dolgeville is set to get a new basketball/pickleball court next to the new Center Park playground at a ribbon cutting ceremony scheduled for July 2, 2024 at 1 p.m.

In 2016/2017, the village began working with Cornell Cooperative Extension, seeking a HEART grant to help fund the project. “The idea was to increase activity in the community, especially among the older population, for heart health,” said Christine Reynolds, president of Dolgeville Forward.

Mayor Mary Puznowski said, “We had the opportunity to get involved in this program and enough people were interested.”

The original idea was to set up exercise stations around the village so residents could move from one station to another. “We then realised the playground was in a terrible state – a lot of the equipment was broken or had been removed – so we thought we’d do something big,” Reynolds says.

They ended up calling it the Dolgeville Fun and Fitness Project, and they raised more than $150,000 in grants, gifts, donations, fundraisers and in-kind work from the DPW.

“We actually did a lot of community work to complete the entire playground,” Reynolds said. “That was the first step, but we knew that basketball court was in bad shape, with worn asphalt and an old hoop with no net.”

The kids were still out there and wanting to play, so they figured they should tackle this project too. “That’s where we approach the Center Park project,” Puznowski said.

“It was quite slow in coming, so we looked for alternative funding, and this came from the Wadas Foundation. They gave us a very generous gift. I was also approached by Rodney Schwartz, our county legislator, because they had decided to distribute their ARPA funds among all the districts,” Reynolds said.

Lawmakers wanted that money to go toward children’s activities or something that would benefit the community.

“These are the two sources of financing for the basketball court,” specifies the mayor.

With this money, they didn’t have to dip into the initial grant, so it’s all still going toward the Center Park project.

Regarding this project, the mayor said they have demolished the old pavilion, cleared the land, removed old fences and trees that were blocking the path and cleaned the culvert. “The site is really ready to go. However, the first offer we made was far beyond the funds we had.”

She said they then decided to split the project and do part of it, which led them to the decision to do the basketball court themselves.

“At this point we need to install the splash pad and pavilion to satisfy the first grant,” Puznowski said.

“The splash pad is a series of modules where water squirts out and kids can run around on it,” Reynolds said.

The Center Park Project grant was supported by the New York Forward grant, which allocated an additional $1.7 million to the project. “With this, we will pretty much be able to complete the entire project,” Reynolds said. “It’s going to be beautiful. All of this will be connected to walkable and wheelchair accessible paths.

There will be a picnic area, parking, a kitchen, restrooms and a three-season room, which will be used for the park’s summer program. “If a storm suddenly comes up, the kids will have a quick shelter to go to,” the mayor said. “For now, they have to go to the village hall and go upstairs to the youth center.”

“The youth program runs most of the summer and they will love it. Between the playground and this, they’re going to have so much to do. This is going to be so much fun for them,” Reynolds remarked.

“We hope to host tournaments and other events on the new court. We will have a fully weighted, freestanding net that can be pushed to the side when people are not playing pickleball,” Puznowski said.

The mayor said the company that did the work did a wonderful job.