GVR directors approve $7 million budget for 2009

The Green Valley Recreation board of directors voted 10-2 Tuesday to approve the 2009 annual budget of $7,130,762, up 8.1 percent from this year’s $6,596.557.

Two directors, however, objected to the amount provided for merit raises and said they’d vote against the whole budget if merit pay amounting to $37,500 was approved. The two, Jim Burt and Marge Garneau, wanted it held to $25,000.

And good news for pickleball fans.

The board approved final plans for new pickleball courts, including concrete for the courts, tiles for the surface and for the fencing, and work could start Monday.

At meeting’s end, Executive Director Anndrea Blackshear was on a cell phone telling the contractors to get started.

Pickleball is growing in popularity worldwide. It’s played on a badminton-sized court with two to four people on the court, hitting a kind of wiffle ball with table-tennis-sized paddles.

Blackshear said she’d had pressure to get the ball rolling, so to speak, and even received suggestions that the courts would be located elsewhere where construction would go faster.

The contracts went to RDJ Concrete Contractors to pour the concrete for two new courts, repair the existing court and remove some shrubs and trees, $29,280 also to Tucson Rhino Sports for $21,220 for the tiles, installation and painting boundary lines and Canyon Fence Co. for $9,000 to install the fencing.

On the motion to approve the $37,500 for merit pay, former GVR president Lou Lovat, speaking from the audience, urged the directors to hold the line. “I think $25.000 was too much,” said Lovat.

Board member Linda Sparks pointed out that the money for merit pay “is a one-year experiment. It’s not for the rest of our lives.”

GVR board elections will be held soon, and chairman of the committee, Mike Banks, said 17 prospective candidates showed up for the first reception for them.

There’ll be two more where potential candidates can meet board members and learn about GVR. They are at 5 p.m., Oct. 1, at Canoa Hills” Saguaro Room and at 2 p.m., Oct. 15, at Madera Vista Recreation Center.

jlamb@gvnews.com | 547-9749.