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The City of Valley Grande might put its plans to install tennis courts at the ballpark on hold after digging into the details of the grant they were pursuing.

Mayor Wayne Labbe said he read through the grant proposal, and he found out some information that made him less enthusiastic about the proposal.

First, the city would be required to get engineering drawings and surveys of the area to apply for the grant. That would come with a price tag of about $40,000.

Secondly, the initial grant may fund only up to $25,000 even though it is 50-50 grant.

Lastly, the city would have no guarantees of getting any grant even after spending $40,000 up front n the project. The first phase would be to build two tennis courts with the second phase increasing the number by an additional four. But there was no guarantee the second phase would be approved even if the first phase was approved.

Labbe gave each of the council members a copy of his findings with the grant proposal to review, but he was concerned about spending that much money on a project that might not reap any financial returns.

“And to put a half of a million dollars into courts that we won’t ever get anything out of it ever,” said Councilwoman Jane Harris. “Not everyone plays tennis I would love to get back into Pickle ball does sound like fun.”

“But it’s a lot of money,” Labbe answered. “There’s a lot of tennis courts in this area that need a lot of maintenance.”

Back in the fall, Labbe said they were pursing a $250,000 grant that could install up to six tennis courts on vacant land at the city’s ballfields. They had suggested that they could also paint pickle ball lines on the court to make them more accessible to the community.

They spent about $5,000 to $6,000 to have an architect draw up a proposal.

The council will likely the issue up at its next meeting on June 2 at 5:30 p.m.