WEATHER
Gig Harbor resident George Lee always thought that having a sand volleyball court in a local park seemed like a practical idea.
“I thought it would be a no-brainer,” he said about why he and fellow volleyball player Greg Vermillion approached city officials about building a court on a city property.
The Gig Harbor City Council agreed with the volleyball enthusiasts.
At last week’s meeting, council members unanimously approved a motion to begin constructing a sand volleyball court at Crescent Creek Park. And the whole process, both from the volleyball team’s and the city’s perspective, has been relatively simple.
For years, both Vermillion and Lee have played on a Peninsula Athletic Association adult recreation volleyball team that practices at the Gig Harbor High School gym on Thursday nights.
And although the facility is free, the location has its share of problems: The team has to wait until all of the high school’s sports teams are done with the gym before they can enter, which means they can’t start practicing until 8 p.m. The late practice time means some local athletes interested in playing volleyball might not be able to attend.
“We’re second choice after all the school sports,” Vermillion said.
A sand court, both Lee and Vermillion said, is the best option for PAA players.
Although they sometimes play outside in parks during the summer months, grass is not the best terrain for volleyball, since it’s rough on players’ joints. Sand also extends the volleyball season by a few extra months since, unlike grass, it does not absorb water. A court would allow more local teams an opportunity to compete without reserving space at fitness centers and local schools.
In early January, Vermillion — who spearheaded the proposal — began to figure out what it would take to build a sand volleyball court on a Gig Harbor park. He began searching online, looking for information about what materials would be needed to build the court and how much it would cost.
Vermillion and Lee also scouted locations around town, looking at which city parks had the space to potentially house the court.
The same month, Vermillion and his teammates attended a Parks Commission meeting, where they proposed their new idea.
And rather than shooting it down, the commission was interested — especially since the volleyball players had already figured out how to fund and construct the court on their own.
Vermillion’s proposal estimates that the court would cost $35,000 to build, including all labor and materials. Right now, his team has half that amount in pledged donations. They hope to acquire the additional amount in a matching grant from PenMet Parks Park Enhancement grants.
That means the City of Gig Harbor wouldn’t have to front any money to see the court constructed.
“Initially, the concern was that it was outside the budget system,” said Michael Perrow, chairman of the Parks Commission. “But because they were funded, it made it so easy.”
Between January and April, Vermillion worked with both the Parks Commission and the city’s Operations Committee to work out a few details. He had initially proposed building the court on the front lawn of the Gig Harbor Civic Center, but that location would not work since that land is currently reserved for possible expansion of the civic center building.
It was Lee who offered a new — and the most probable — location: The current BMX park at Crescent Creek Park. He lives near the park, and he said he drives by the area every day on his way to and from work.
But before they proposed the new site to the Parks Commission and Operations Committee, Vermillion decided to make sure it was OK with the local BMXers that he use part of their land.
He and Lee met with Matt Orlando, a 19-year-old BMXer who was involved in constructing the park’s dirt jumps a few years ago.
The volleyball players and BMXers worked out a plan that both could agree with: Orlando would support the proposal, as long as Vermillion used the displaced dirt from building the court to build more jumps at the BMX park.
Orlando hopes that volleyball games will bring more attention to Crescent Creek in general.
“I feel like it’s not a bad idea,” Orlando said. “As of right now, the (BMX) park’s not even finished, so it could be one way of getting it complete.”
The support from the BMXers is one reason why council member Paul Conan voted in favor of the new sand volleyball court at last week’s meeting. He said he was “impressed” by Vermillion and others’ efforts to include the BMX riders in the process.
“I think the biggest piece is that it was a grassroots campaign with a pretty solid group of people who took in everybody’s comments,” he said. “Instead of coming with an idea, they came with a solution. It’s very doable.”
Perrow agreed, saying most of the volleyball players’ success was due to the amount of effort they put into the project.
“From my experience just living in the harbor, and on the Parks Commission, it’s pretty unique that they just said they were going to do this and they did,” he said.
Now that the proposal has been approved, Conan, who also serves as Mayor Pro-Tem, predicts that construction on the park could begin soon.
The volleyball players have been working with Public Works Superintendent Marco Malich to move forward and potentially complete the court this summer.
Both Vermillion and Lee are hopeful that the process will move quickly, now that they have the city council’s support.
But since the court has been a longtime dream of theirs, they are hesitant to believe it will be built right away. They know it’s possible they may have to wait a few more months.
“I think that a lot of the reason it took us so long to move forward — we’ve been thinking about it for four or five years — (was) not knowing where to start,” Vermillion said. “We’ll be ... proud when there’s actually a (court) built.”
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