Nederland City Council met on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022, at Nederland City Hall.
Beaumont Express
Courtney Pedersen, Staff writer
Nederland community members have decided against adding a half-court basketball court to a local public park.
During a Nederland City Council meeting late last month, a public hearing regarding a potential half-court basketball court at Cropo LeBlanc Park was held.
"The Nederland Parks Department planned to purchase the half court basketball court via state-approved contract," Nederland City Manager Christopher Duque said. "The price was $36,271 that would be paid via the park special fund."
The court was requested by two residents in fall 2020, who reached out to parks director and parks advisory board, Duque said.
"It came to our attention that some of the neighbors were concerned with the problems that may occur following the installation of the half court basketball court," Duque said. "We recommended holding a public hearing to solicit community input prior to taking action on the purchase request."
Several residents emailed the city opposed to the proposal and a few even attended the meting to speak out against the basketball court the idea.
Nederland resident Rebecca Pryor said she lives right next to the Cropo LeBlanc Park and is not happy about the idea of the basketball court being added.
Pryor said the biggest thing she worries about the safety of her children, after hearing about the violence, language and loud music issues at Doornbos Park, where basketball courts have caused issues.
"Ultimately, this will impact the way my family lives our lives," Pryor said. "That's really sad for me because when we bought this house the park was really huge for us. We have our kids' birthday parties there and my kids beg every time we get out of the car 'can we go to the park?' It's a really big part of home."
Pryor specified that it's not that she doesn't want people to come to the park, it's about the concern of the crowd that it brings in that is the problem.
Another Nederland resident Ron Strickland agreed with Pryor.
"There's going to be a lot of problems when we generate older kids going to the play basketball games," Strickland said. "I saw the problems they had at Doornbos and you're the only thing you're going to do is move the problems from one area to another."
Strickland said the bottom line is that the kids who use the park are going to be in jeopardy.
"There's a lot more than playing basketball," Strickland said. "There's drug dealers, there's sex and everything else park at one time."
After hearing from residents, the council dropped the idea of adding the court, instead of putting it on another agenda.
courtney.pedersen@beaumontenterprise.com
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