Bloomsburg pickleball courts set to open after months-long delay

Bloomsburg’s Streater Field pickleball complex cleared for public use Monday night.

The courts were finished last September but never opened on the original schedule.

The setback came after engineers found groundwater beneath the courts, a problem that led to uneven settling and raised foundation concerns. The town spent months weighing what to do with the site, even discussing whether the space should become parking or boat storage before the Town Council voted to open the courts for play.

Bloomsburg approved 10 new pickleball courts at Streater Field, and the build ended up costing more than $370,000. The idea for the courts started about two years before the grant came through in January 2024. The total price tag was more than $300,000, funded by state money and private donations. The Greenway Trails grant supplied $100,000, while Danville Area Pickleball Players and other donors covered about one-third of the project.

Councilmember Jim Garman brought donors and pickleball groups through the site during the delay, and their reaction was strongly in favor of opening the facility instead of leaving it closed. One visitor group called the courts “among the nicest in Pennsylvania” and said they were even better than some they had played on in Florida. In an October 2025 council discussion, the surface was described as like Play-Doh.

Before the opening was approved, the Town Council reviewed core sample testing in executive session with an attorney and an engineer present. The town also received an independent third-party engineering evaluation covering surface conditions, subgrade performance, drainage and construction-related factors. The delayed-opening notice had originally pointed to a Friday, Oct. 3, 2025 grand opening, and named LIVIC Civil and contractor Robert C. Young as the firms working on the problem. The notice also said the project had more than 100 donors.

The courts are expected to open once the remaining ADA-compliant parking spaces and permits are finished, with public access set to begin within about a week. When play starts, the courts will be open from dawn to dusk and monitored by video surveillance that police can access. The town will also work with the Town Park Improvement Association to return donor funds.