Pickleball, skate park among suggestions for Hoover's parks

HOOVER, Ala. (WBMA) — In recent days, the city of Hoover asked for input on a plan for its parks and public spaces and the community responded. People attended meetings and filled out a survey on the city's 15 to 20 year plan.

"You have to look at what folks are wanting and those have to be moved to the top of the list so to speak, and our council will get an opportunity to hear from the parks and recreation staff, and get their recommendations, they certainly play a key role in what needs to be done, and they’ll be the ones that help interpret what the consultants bring back to us and they are the ones who will put the plan together to bring forth some type of recommendation to our city council and that’s pretty much how it works for everything in government," explained Mayor Frank Brocato.

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Brocato said 3% of the population of Hoover participated with 2,700 surveys completed.

"A year ago is when we started having this conversation, so this is part of the plan to bring this consultant in and gather this type of information so it’s going to be really invaluable to get this much input from people across our city and what’s interesting we had people from across the metro come to those meetings to give input and I thought that was fantastic," said Brocato. "It's 15-20 years but we will obviously start budgeting each year. That’s one part of the plan, will help us budget, how we are going to allocate those funds for each budget year, and so, some things are very expensive and make 2-3 years to budget together, you may set that money aside but that’s basically what it is, it’s a plan."

Brocato said the response was very diverse. Some of the suggestions people had were an outdoor chess table, zip lines, birding tours, and summer camps. He said there was also interest in creating more trails, but the two most popular ideas brought to the table were pickleball and a skate park.

"It seems like pickle ball is a really big deal in the city and something people want to see. We had a lot of support for a skate park and what was interesting was the diversity of the things we received," he said.

Johnny Grimes, a Hoover resident, has been advocating for a skate park to be built in the city. He said there is a need for a professionally designed place for people to skate and believes it would be a massive draw for the city and surrounding areas. According to Grimes, the only other places like the one he is proposing in Hoover, are in Birmingham at City Walk and Cullman, in addition to one that is being built in Huntsville.

"Adding this to our parks and recs would only offer a completely different option for those who live in the city, it attracts people from all over but it also gives the citizens in Hoover that are not necessarily drawn to a traditional sport, a team sport like basketball, football or baseball, it gives them an option too," said Grimes. "Everyone from the parks and recs board to the city council to the mayor's office has been open and interested in hearing more about it so that's been a positive. So to see it take shape and gain momentum has been really great."

Even on a rainy day like Wednesday, several people were out at Veterans Park.

Paul Martin has lived in Hoover since 1984. He said he comes to the park about 5 times a week to 'get his steps in.' Martin said he enjoys the parks in the city and doesn't have many suggestions for improvement.

"There's a lot of flowers, in the summer time there's a lot of ducks, there’s a Blue Herron I like to photograph. There’s quite a bit you can do here," said Martin. "I think there's a lot of people who like to see more pickleball courts, so that might be the only thing I can think of."

Martin said he enjoyed playing racquetball, but would participate in pickleball.

Thomas Dunklin lives in Calera but visits the parks in Hoover frequently.

"The trails are perfect for me to get my steps in," said Dunklin. "I'm also getting ready for a 5k run, so it also helps me out on nature trails, changing the scenery."

Dunklin said his only suggestions would be more 'trails and greenery.'

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The city has 32 parks and draws in not just people who live in Hoover, but thousands of visitors.

"We have that every weekend. Thousands of people visit Hoover, we have lots of parks, you look out on the eastern side of town, veterans park, that huge open park that people are using from all over the metro. You ride down stadium trace on the weekend and see thousands of cars everything from pickleball to soccer to some type of event that’s being held," said Brocato. "So we are getting people from, which we want to do, from all over the metro and all over the state visiting our city."

Brocato said all suggestions are under consideration and will help the city determine where to put their dollars for not only the next year, but for the next 15-20 years as well.

"We want to put as much of it on the table and build as much of it as possible to give our citizens what they want," said Brocato.

Pickleball courts are already in the works at Veterans Park. People could be playing this time next year. Another plan over at the Hoover Met is a larger project, which could take two years to complete.

The survey online will stay open for at least 10 more days.

"People want the opportunity to participate in their government. A lot of time it’s difficult for them to come to city hall and do that. People are busy so when you do things like this, you put these town meetings together where you go to neighborhoods, it makes it a little more convenient and people are able to respond and you put surveys like this on the internet and website where more people can participate, it gives everyone buy in and buy in is very important," said Brocato. "You don’t want to hear from someone saying I didn’t know anything about it or I wish I could’ve said this, that or the other. The reality is that we'd like 100% of our citizens to fill out the survey and 100% of our citizens to have heard of it, so we did everything we could to get that information out to them in terms of that opportunity."

The city is hoping to bring the information collected by surveys by late summer, early fall then go back to the community with what they are seeing and hearing and provide a timeline for when some of those ideas may start to take shape.