ATHOL — A grand opening ceremony for the resurfaced pickleball courts at Silver Lake Park has been scheduled for 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 17, according to Silver Lake Pickleball Association (SLPA) Chair Tim Burgess.

“The Chamber of Commerce is going to be there,” Burgess said, “and I’m hoping to have a few people from the town of Athol and the Rotary Club, obviously, as well as some of the association people who have helped make this happen. We just plan on having a ribbon cutting, and the chamber said they would help us facilitate the ceremony.

“Then we’ll probably just play some pickleball,” Burgess added. As for who will play the first match? “I don’t know — we really haven’t decided on that yet.”

When it came to the effort to fund the resurfacing of the courts, Burgess said support has been there, but sometimes their plans were in doubt.

“It’s been good, but there were some times where we wondered,” Burgess said. “At first, this was going to be close to $18,000 that we needed to raise, so we needed some major support.”

Much of that support, he said, came after the association spoke with Bill Kessler, a member of the Athol-Orange Rotary Club.

“He plays pickleball with us and he had mentioned that [the Rotary Club] had funds available and that they were looking to fund some type of community improvement,” Burgess said. “We had quotes from a couple of places, so we knew the kind of money that needed to be raised.”

In the end, the Rotary Club agreed to fund $10,000 of the nearly $18,000 project.

“There were also questions about whether we’d get any support from the town,” Burgess added. “We knew we would get some type of support, but we were pleasantly surprised when we got $5,000.”

The funding was raised by the association soliciting contributions from residents, with a number of local businesses also supporting the cause.

MA Sealcoating LLC was hired to undertake the project and a crew from the Oxford-based company began working on the court last week. While the weather has proven problematic — work has been postponed several times — the project is nearly complete.

In an interview with the Athol Daily News last September, Paul Raskevitz, assistant superintendent with the Athol Department of Public Works, said there were questions about whether the courts could be resurfaced. One vendor he spoke with said the new surface might not last because “moisture will wick up through the pad from the ground and get underneath whatever sealant we put on it and it will bubble up.”

Further discussions and research, however, indicated a new surface could be applied. On Tuesday morning, Raskevitz said officials at MA Sealcoating “believe there’s enough sandy material underneath the deck.”

“It’s perched up high enough where that shouldn’t be a concern,” Raskevitz said. “They also gave us a couple of references where they’ve done similar work, so we felt confident that it wasn’t going to happen.”

“The good thing with the courts we have now,” Burgess added, “is that the cement is very thick, so we don’t have to worry about moisture coming up through the ground. So, the paint will adhere well.”

Additionally, more work at Fish Park will also be done by the DPW.

“We’re super excited,” said Raskevitz. “In fact, we’re going to reline the pickleball lines that are faded at the courts at Fish Park; only the lines, we’re not resurfacing the whole court. So, there will soon be a couple of locations where residents can go and play pickleball.”

Signs will be posted announcing that skateboarding, bike riding, roller skating and other activities that might damage the resurfaced courts will be prohibited, according to Burgess.

“If we’re just playing pickleball and respecting the courts, it’s going to last us,” he said. “Touch-up may not be necessary for two or three years, and that’s something the association could handle.”

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.