HARLINGEN — The city’s new volleyball courts are awaiting their fill of sand.
The two courts — the city’s first public volleyball courts — are located near the Lon C. Hill Pool.
“I had the idea a long time ago and it was always on the back burner and now it’s happening so I’m really excited,” said Adam Diaz, the Parks and Recreation Department’s aquatics supervisor.
Diaz said he envisions a site which eventually will add horseshoes and barbecue pits to make it a family friendly venue.
The twin volleyball courts have been dug and laid out.
“The borders are already all done,” Armando Villela, parks superintendent, told the parks and rec board this week. “We’re just ready to haul over sand and we’ve already put in the footings for the poles, poured them.
“The drainage is already installed underneath the fabric,” he added. “We’re just pending a couple of the borders that will run on the east side of it but they’ve already come in. But just because of the weather we’ve had the last couple of weeks, we haven’t been able to haul in sand.”
Villela said one corner of the courts was filling with water following recent rains and he intends for his crew to rectify that before the sand is laid on the courts.
“The last 20 feet on the south side kind of ponds so we’re going to end up running one more drain line there just to make sure before we put the sand down,” he said. “So when the sand is in there we don’t have a mud pit when it rains. But the rest of the drainage we installed, it worked.”
Villela said the twin outdoor courts will be side by side, and are being constructed on a north-south axis to minimize players having to look into the sun.
Parks and Recreation Director Javier Mendez has said previously the unlighted volleyball courts were created at minimal expense to the city. Once open, they will be available for free on a first come-first served basis.
