NAMPA, Idaho — Nampa's Orah Brandt Park cut the ribbon on Phase 3, adding six pickleball courts, basketball half-courts, and a softball diamond to the growing park.
- On Wednesday, the mayor joined Parks and Recreation employees and members of the public to celebrate the newest phase of one of Nampa's newest parks.
- As the city grows, seeing the development of new neighborhoods, so do Nampa's parks, and it just so happens to also be Parks and Recreation Month!
- The City received many requests for pickleball courts and originally had only three planned before settling on six.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
"I drive by these things all the time," says Nephi Dumar, "I've been waiting for months for these things to open up."
Six brand new pickleball courts are among the new amenities now open at Nampa's Orah Brandt Park.
On Wednesay, the mayor joined parks and recreation employees and members of the public to celebrate the newest phase of one of Nampa's newest parks.
As the city grows, seeing the development of new neighborhoods, so do Nampa's parks, and it just so happens to also be Parks and Recreation Month!
"It's always fun to try to open a park every year and we knew that this was scheduled to open in July and luckily for us, it stayed on schedule and we were able to open up this phase," Nampa's Parks & Rec Director Darrin Johnson told me.
As Nampa and its parks grow, so does the enthusiasm for pickleball making it a no-brainer to add to the park plans.
"I like it because I'm getting older now, I play against 80-year-old guys that can still beat me and it's like 'what!' So that's what I look at. I need to get a sport that I can do when I'm 80 and still have fun at it, be competitive," Nephi explained of the sport.
That accessibility is a huge reason for the sport's explosive growth, something Nampa Parks and Rec was very aware of when choosing the courts for construction.
"We got a lot of community input about pickleball. When we first started looking at pickleball we only had three courts planned but through the process, we decided to put six courts in because of the interest," Johnson added.
