An Army doctor’s proposal to develop a tennis-pickleball complex in West Augusta isn’t dead, yet, despite an Augusta staff recommendation to reject the plan.
Troy Akers, who developed successful Dink’d Pickleball in Martinez, presented a proposal to Augusta commissioners in February for a 66-court tennis and pickleball complex on land he had under contract off Wheeler Road.
The $80 million complex would potentially include a hotel and would supplement rather than detract from Augusta’s existing facilities such as Newman and Fleming tennis centers, he said at the time.
After a meeting with city staff, Akers said he followed the city’s guidelines for submitting an “unsolicited proposal,” a 50-page application, in good faith but heard nothing back of it until reading in the news Monday it had been rejected.
In the rejection going for approval by an Augusta commission committee Tuesday, staff members said Akers’ proposal would divert Sales Tax 8 dollars away from proposed resurfacing of courts at Newman and create a financial burden for the city.
Akers told committee members the proposal used Sales Tax 8 as an example of voter support for tennis, and that the project would generate revenue rather than be a drain on resources.
After considerable discussion and questioning by Commissioner Don Clark, the committee directed staff and the city’s interim general counsel to meet again with Akers.
The full commission spent nearly three hours behind closed doors Tuesday but emerged to take little action. After the called legal session, the commission voted to set Elections Director Travis Doss’ salary at $126,000 and to refund $273,000 in property taxes to the United House of Prayer for All People.
In other action, the city’s Public Services committee approved spending $491,000 for upgrades at Diamond Lakes Regional Park in response to a citizen petition that garnered nearly 1,800 signatures.
The funds included some $440,000 for sidewalks, $7,000 for 10 benches, $30,000 for shelters at $10,000 each and $12,000 for speed humps. The committee held off on a request for security cameras which had been estimated at $200,000.
In an agenda addition from Mayor Garnett Johnson, a committee agreed to pay half the expense to replant 31 willow oaks that fell in the Wheeler Road median during Hurricane Helene. The project was an extension of businessman Barry Storey’s effort to beautify city gateways.
