Eight more pickleball courts coming to Nokomis park

NOKOMIS — Sarasota County broke ground Tuesday on improvements to Nokomis Community Park — including eight new, lighted pickleball courts.

"We're always getting requests for pickleball courts," County Commissioner Neil Rainford said during the groundbreaking ceremony.

In addition to the pickleball courts, Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Director Nicole Rissler said, the park will be getting a new pavilion, outdoor restrooms, a paved connection to the Legacy Trail and enhanced parking.

Other improvements include a shade structure; fencing; sports lighting; shell walking trails; two-pole shelters; two metal grills; three bike racks; dumpster enclosure landscaping; and irrigation, a county news release says.

Also, Rissler said, the existing basketball and tennis courts will be resurfaced.

And though it's not part of this $1.5 million project, the community building will be getting some improvements, she said.

"Parks like this are some of my favorites because of their impact on the local community," Rissler said.

The park occupies the site of the former Nokomis School, built in 1924, according to the historical marker at the park. It originally served grades one through eight but was expanded in 1927 to include area high school students.

The first graduating class, in 1930, had eight students, the marker says.

The school closed in the 1950s after elementary and high schools were built in Venice but was reopened shortly afterward due to overcrowding at Venice Elementary.

When schools were desegregated in 1963, the county stopped busing Black students to north Sarasota and had all children in Laurel and Nokomis attend Nokomis Elementary.

Prefab classrooms replaced the original building in 1970. The school was closed again due to a water supply crisis in 1992, with the students moving to the new Laurel Nokomis School, according to the marker.

Work on the park is expected to be completed in April 2025, Rissler said.