Pickleball enthusiasts will soon have their own courts at Halls Ferry Park.

The Board of Mayor and Aldermen on Oct. 18 approved an agreement with Neel-Schaffer, a Jackson-based engineering firm, totaling $23,000 to handle engineering for the construction of eight pickleball courts near the tennis courts at Halls Ferry.

“Today, we are solving the issue of not having pickleball courts outside in the city of Vicksburg,” South Ward Alderman Alex Monsour said. “This is a unique game here.”

Tom Henderson with Neel-Schaffer said the company hopes to have the project ready for bid after the first of the year. An artist’s rendering of the plan shows the courts will be located at the end of the park’s parking lot and south of the tennis courts.

Pickleball is a game played with a paddle and a plastic ball with holes that employs the elements of tennis, ping-pong and badminton that is played both indoors or outdoors on a badminton-sized court and a slightly modified tennis net.

The sport has become popular with many residents, who play at several local gymnasiums and on the Halls Ferry tennis courts, where the pickleball courts are lined off using tape.

But the tape used to line off the courts was damaging the tennis courts, Monsour said, emphasizing the need for building the new courts.

“Some people tell me, ‘If you say game changer one more time’…,” he said, “But it is. “Everybody can come see what we have, so we can bring people from outside and we can have a two-day tournament and people can come stay in our hotels and eat in our restaurants and that’s how we generate revenue in the city of Vicksburg. You’ll have top of the line.”