Updates from Ravenna Eckstein Court Project

May 2019

The final DESIGN PHASE steps are to conduct two open house format viewings of the final design, and associated construction documents and estimated costs. All are invited to drop in to either one to see and understand the current status of this project. Stay as long as you need, or drop by for 5 minutes. Both meetings are an open house format. Please drop in at either location, any time during the designated times. Two Library branches are the meeting locations (Not at Eckstein MS), both have some limited, free parking.

  • Meeting 1 – May 7th (Tuesday) Green Lake Library branch meeting room ( 4:00 – 5:30 PM )
  • Meeting 2 – May 8th (Wednesday) Northeast Library Branch meeting room ( 5:30 – 6:30 PM)

They are transitioning from Design to construction planning and funding – and this project is looking for its next group of stewards. It seems a good time to bring in a new leadership team, more closely tied to the Eckstein MS community. Kathy Schmidtke is no longer a parent of a current EMS student, and believe current parents, more closely connected to the school, its events and activities are better suited to promote this project into the next phase. She started this in 2017, and its time to pass the baton.

Many construction variables exist regarding the court surface repair process and final coating, fence repair vs. replacement. Cost estimates exist for a basic version, and a deluxe solution with associated costs from $ 40K – $ 80K. The next leadership team will need to determine what scale of fundraising is feasible and possible in the current climate of public grant funding availability. The next DON grant application date is September 2019. Partners: The Seattle Schools Self Help team (Operations) remains committed to support this project into the next phase. Seattle Parks Foundation continues to be our fiscal sponsor and is available to consult on the next phase of fundraising. Please feel free to submit any questions to: pickleballeckstein@gmail.com and more importantly, they need more folks to attend one of the meetings on 5/7 or 5/8/19 and sign in to help us meet the public process requirement for their grant from Seattle Department of Neighborhoods (DON).

You can join the mailing list by texting the keyword: EMSpickleball to 22828 and an automated reply will ask them to enter an email address. Also, look for the Facebook group: Pickleball at Eckstein MS (NE Seattle)