ATHOL – A complete resurfacing of the three Silver Lake pickleball courts is set to begin next Monday.

According to the website Pickleheads, the number of pickleball players in the U.S. tops 36.5 million people.

A good many of those players live in and around Athol and, in recognition of the sport’s growing popularity nationwide, the three pickleball courts at Silver Lake Park – among the 14,000 nationwide – will soon be getting an $18,000 upgrade, with work to begin on Monday, July 29.

The work will be done by MA Sealcoating, LLC of Oxford. Matt King, a member of the town’s Open Space and Recreation Commission and the Silver Lake Pickleball Association (SLPA), said the company has resurfaced basketball and pickleball courts, as well as doing regular sealcoating jobs.

“They’re coming in Monday to start the project, and it’s going to be about a week-long project,” King said. “They’ll start by cleaning everything off, getting the surface prepped and ready.”

The work will include patching some of the damage done when the courts were used as a skate park.

“They’ll fill in a bunch of the divots that have been left by the skate park – screws and bolts that have been pulled out and caused some divots in the concrete,” King said. “Then they’ll do what I believe is a two-part resurfacing, with a textured surface in three different colors on the court.”

King said he became involved in the sport about two years ago.

“I was told that there was a group of pickleball players down at Silver Lake Park, and they were bringing in temporary nets,” he said. “We were borrowing nets and going down with four, six, eight people and we were playing a couple of days a week.”

As interest in the sport grew, the Silver Lake Pickleball Association was formed with an eye toward improving the condition of the courts at Silver Lake, as well as promoting participation by people of all ages.

“About six months ago,” said King, “the word was out that the local Rotary Club was looking to make a donation to some type of community project, so we’ve been talking to them, working out the details for them to donate to this project, to let them know it would benefit the community.”

The Athol-Orange Area Rotary Club will contribute $10,000 to the project, with another $5,000 to come from the Department of Public Works’ budget, said King. The rest of the money comes from fundraising efforts by the SLPA.

SLPA Chair Tim Burgess said his organization hopes to hold a ribbon-cutting at the courts in late August. Burgess added that, in addition to the Rotary Club and the Town of Athol, a number of local businesses have contributed to the group’s fundraising efforts. These include Athol Savings Bank, Burgess Bookkeeping Solutions, Burgess Consulting Associates, Herricks Inc., Excellent Edge Sharpening, Dugas Music Service, Friends of Corner Café, Level IT Land Management, Lyman Signs & Graphic Solutions, Scrafty, Canning Electric and Gardner Franco American Federal Credit Union.

In addition, many area individuals have also made donations. Burgess said anyone willing to contribute can mail checks to: Silver Lake Pickleball Association, c/o Sharon Burgess, 721 Lennox Street, Athol 01331.

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.