By: Alyssa Ochss | St. Clair Shores Sentinel | Published June 6, 2025
ST. CLAIR SHORES — In a 6-0 vote at their meeting on May 19, members of the St. Clair Shores City Council approved the receipt of a donation from the Shorewood Kiwanis to create more pickleball courts within the city.
Councilman Ronald Frederick was excused for this meeting.
According to items attached to the meeting agenda, the donation was in the amount of $102,000. The Kiwanis approached the St. Clair Shores Parks and Recreation Department in January of this year and after discussions between Kiwanis board members, they approved this amount.
“The current site holds 2 pickleball courts within a tennis court-sized area, which is not ideal for pickleball conditions,” the agenda items said about the current courts. “With the rapid growth of pickleball across the country and the slowing trend of tennis, we feel that this project is a worthwhile endeavor.”
Carl Papa, president of the Shorewood Kiwanis, presented the item along with Parks and Recreation Director Rob Spinazzola. Papa explained at the meeting that the Shorewood Kiwanis has looked for projects in the city to work on as a way of putting the group’s name out there. He said that though they do a lot of work for kids in the city, not many people know who they are.
“We had something out there front and center which will put our name (out) and also benefit kids,” Papa said.
Papa said pickleball is huge, garnering the attention of young and old. He mentioned other cities that have pickleball accommodations.
He said St. Clair Shores needs more pickleball courts, stating that the six at the senior center are not enough.
“Shorewood is excited to partner with the city on this endeavor and to back it up, we are going to present a check for $102,000 later on this evening to put our money where our mouth is,” Papa said.
The pickle ball courts will be located at Kyte Monroe Park at 32701 Harper Avenue. Spinazzola said at one point, the city took two of the tennis courts at the park and converted it into a small pickleball court.
“However, the fencing system that is set up there is not adequate to how pickleball should be played and with the way pickleball is trending and the lack of tennis being played, we feel this is a worthwhile endeavor for us to move forward with,” Spinazzola said.
This project will create six new pickleball courts from two courts.
Mayor Kip Walby said the money donated is tremendous though they still have to put a little bit of money into the courts to complete one phase. Dustin Lent, St. Clair Shores city manager, explained the estimated cost to renovate the courts is $186,480 that includes a 10% contingency.
The city applied for a grant to renovate the bathrooms at the Civic Ice Arena, but they were unsuccessful. Lent said they are going to try again and have allocated money in next year’s budget. Their matching portion for the grant was around $50,000.
“Since we were unsuccessful in that grant and now, we are going to be successful in this grant and the donation from the Kiwanis Club, I thought it’d be pertinent to be able to use some matching funds toward a matching project for the city,” Lent said.
That still leaves the city paying a little over $34,000 and Lent said they planned to use the contingency out of the general government fund. The grant and the general fund money amount to a total of $84,480.
Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Dave Rubello thanked Papa and the Shorewood Kiwanis for the donation.
“Because that’s a mighty nice gesture right there,” Rubello said.
Councilwoman Candice Rusie said she remembered voting to have the courts redone and it doesn’t look like that happened. She said they were in rough shape.
“Thank you to the Kiwanis for helping us be able to renovate these. This is much needed,” Rusie said.
Councilman John Caron thanked the Kiwanis as well and he also asked when this was slated to be completed. Spinazzola said after the meeting that they planned to get the courts engineered as soon as possible.
“Get that bid out and then I would hope (for) construction sometime this summer or early fall,” Spinazzola said.
Caron asked for a more definitive timeline. He also asked about other projects within the city that need attention.
The Shorewood Kiwanis has plans to host a junior pickleball tournament in 2026 and Papa will also volunteer his time to teach kids pickleball in the same year.