By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle
Oliver and District Recreation has begun construction of the new outdoor basketball court at the Oliver Community Park, a process which will take about two weeks.
It’s been a long wait for B-Ballers after the town’s two previous outdoor courts were displaced over the last decade or so, first in Lion’s Park following upgrades to the Skatepark and then next to the tennis courts when new pickleball courts were added.
This then left only the local school grounds which meant they were not available during the week days and they were not ful sized courts.
An excited Carol Sheridan, Director of Oliver and District Recreation said, “We’re bringing back a public basketball court, it’s going to be an awesome full sized, outdoor basketball court, which is really going to add to the sports facilities available here in Oliver.”
Sheridan said the first phase construction will take about two weeks which will see the hoops and asphalt surface completed, with the second phase court surfacing and line markings coming in May 2025 once the temperature is warmer. But she adds that eager basketballers will still be able to use the court as is in meantime.
Oliver and District Recreation photo
The court has taken over the space where lawn bowlers once threw bowls. “We did have several conversations with the local club, she says adding there was only a couple of people who were still very committed to the game and tried to rally support.
“We did staff events there, trying to build interest and we also tried to help them promote what they were doing it, but it just wasn’t working.
“As far as a really valuable space, we reviewed what kind of things we could do in there, and because of the proximity to the parking lot, the washrooms and the potential for lighting, I think a basketball court was ideal for the space that’ll involve as many people as we can,” Sheridan said.
She noted that basketball is a fast growing sport amongst the youth, “especially this past year with the Olympics and that sort of debut of the three-on-three, I think there’s a lot of potential to get more kids playing.”
At some point the fence around the former lawn bowling area will come down and that will make the park in general “nice and open and welcoming” she added.
“Think about what a jewel this is,” Sheridan enthuses about the Oliver Community Park.
“You’ve got this one stop shop where there’s an arena, there’s a pool, there’s disc golf, there’s tennis, there’s pickleball and now there’s basketball, “it’s just going to be awesome,” she says be fore adding there’s also the ball diamonds, and bandshell.
“It’s just a really nice sports and event park that we’ve built down here. And really hope people embrace that.”
The Recreation Department advises that during the construction there will be a lot of activity (trucks, workers, etc) in the area between the kitchen and the construction site meaning there will be no thoroughfare for vehicles or foot traffic during this period.
Foot traffic should enter the park through the west gate or the main park entrance through the breezeway.
