Auburn closes Lake Wilmore pickleball courts for repair work

Auburn Parks and Recreation Department pulled 12 covered pickleball courts at Lake Wilmore Park out of service Monday for warranty repair work, and the outdoor basketball courts at Frank Brown Recreation Center also closed for resurfacing and maintenance. The city said the shutdown is temporary, with reopening dates to be announced later, and players can shift to the six open pickleball courts at Lake Wilmore Park or the six courts at Samford Avenue Tennis and Pickleball Courts. Basketball players can use the outdoor courts at Boykin Community Center.

The move lands in a city where pickleball has already moved well beyond an experiment. Auburn opened the first 12 covered and lit courts at Lake Wilmore Park Recreation Center free of charge on April 16, 2025, while another six courts were still under construction. By Oct. 6, 2025, all 18 covered and lit courts were open to the public, free of charge, daily from sunrise to 9 p.m., first-come, first-served unless a court was reserved or used for a Parks and Recreation program.

That scale has forced the city to manage traffic like a serious piece of recreation infrastructure. Auburn’s court-rotation guidance at Lake Wilmore asked players to keep warmups to five minutes, play best two out of three to 11, and limit winners to no more than three straight games on the court. Those are the rules of a facility that sees constant use, not a patch of casual extra space.

The June closure is also the latest chapter in a project that has been built in stages. Auburn City Council approved a design contract amendment for six additional pickleball courts on Dec. 19, 2023, then approved a $9.4 million athletic-fields contract on April 16, 2024 that included six new covered pickleball courts adjacent to the recreation center. The city said Lake Wilmore would ultimately have 18 covered courts, and that is exactly what opened in 2025.

Mayor Ron Anders said in December 2024 that Lake Wilmore would provide “much needed additional space” for Auburn basketball teams, a reminder that the park was designed to relieve pressure across multiple sports at once. The latest maintenance work does not shrink Auburn’s pickleball footprint, but it does show how heavily used public courts now have to be maintained like real sports infrastructure.