The City of Chadron has been awarded a $140,000 grant from the Land and Water Conservation Fund Stateside Assistance Program for pickleball courts and a playground replacement.
The grant was among 13 totaling almost $2.8-million approved last week by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission from either the Assistance Program or the Recreational Trails Program
      City Manager Tom Menke says everyone excited to get the grant and anxious to get started on the project, which will revamp the city tennis courts so they can be used for either tennis or pickleball, one of the fastest-growing sports in the country.
Menke says this is a new program for the city and he has absolutely no idea how long the paperwork and consultation process will take – much less when the pickleball courts will be ready to use.
Menke is also hopeful that the numbers prove favorable and Chadron will actually be able to add even more pickleball courts through the grant.
Chadron State Park has pickleball courts and Menke says when a contractor striped them last year, they also striped the city tennis courts, which should speed up the conversion process once the state gives the ok.
Chadron isn’t the only area committee to get a grant from the Statewide Assistance Program in the current funding cycle. Alliance received a $78,000 grant for a playground replacement project.
Funding from the Land and Water Conservation Fund comes from the U-S Dept of the Interior and federal oil and gas leases on the Outer Continental Shelf