BELLAIRE – Ground was broken Monday morning for Bellaire’s recreation and entertainment complex.

The project is made possible through a $1,468,912 through the federal Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization Program grant and $200,000 from the State Capital Budget Fund procured by Ohio State Sen. Brian Chavez, R-Marietta.

Construction will begin June 15.

The complex will have eight pickle-ball courts, a hiking trail, new concession stand, and an entertainment stage.

A driving force behind the project was Bellaire Councilwoman Janet Richardson. She said she worked closely with late former mayor Ed Marling.

“On December 20 of 2024, Mayor Marling called me to tell me he received news that the (Abandoned Mine Lands Economic Revitalization) grant was awarded to Bellaire in the amount of $1,468,912. I’m only sorry that he’s not with us today,” Richardson said. “We were absolutely thrilled. What a great Christmas gift for the village of Bellaire. An additional blessing was when our township trustee Frank Shaffer arranged for Sen. Chavez to come visit us. We explained our project to the senator, and he commented on how nice it would be to have a place for our families to gather and enjoy entertainment in the summer evenings.”

She added that, at the same time, Faith Fellowship Church Pastor Bill Marinelli was wanting to bring a pickleball community to the village.

“I started playing pickleball about 10 years ago after I retired, because then it was the old man’s sport. It was an old man’s tennis, and as long as you could still walk, you could play,” Marinelli said. “The problem was, there was only one set of courts in the valley, and that was over in Elm Grove. I didn’t go to Elm Grove very often, so I didn’t know much about it, but over the past 10 years, I’ve become so familiar with Elm Grove that when I would go to tournaments to play and they’d say, where do you play? I would have to say Wheeling, West Virginia. I was thinking about it. Why not Bellaire?”

Marinelli said pickleball is the fastest growing sport in America.

“It started out as an old man sport, but now it’s moving down to the kids,” he said. “In fact, the leading female on the pro circuit for pickleball is 18 years old. She started when she was 10, and it’s beginning to go back into the schools.

“Pickleball is not a new sport, it was started in 1965,” Marinelli continued. “It’s a growing sport. If you don’t know what pickleball is, you must have your head in a bucket somewhere, because it’s everywhere. By 2028, it’s promising to be in the Olympics. And why can’t we have the kids who will be playing in those games be from here?”

Chavez, who attended Monday’s ceremony, said that when searching for a project to fund through the State Capital Budget Fund, he wants to make sure the projects will be utilized and impactful for the community.

“Representing 10 counties, I had well over $100 million worth of requests,” he said. “So when I come to these projects, I want to make sure that it’s going to be impactful to the community. We don’t want to just spend money and pat ourselves on the back and say, we did a great job and then it’s never utilized, never thought of again. And I was assured that it will be.

“I want a good story to tell to Columbus whenever we get these capital requests in the future,” Chavez added. “I want to be able to point to this and say that this is the investment we made in Bellaire and this is what they’re doing. This is why we invest in this region and I’m looking forward to this great story to tell.”

Benny McCament, mineral resources management chief for the AMLER Division, said that the grant tries to use resources as best as possible to help facilitate projects that apply to the grant.

“One of the requirements for this program — which sometimes is the hardest thing to do but to make sure — is that there is a connection to abandoned mine lands,” he said. “That has to be the connection that makes the funding eligible. When we see a project come in for this location, or for Bellaire, it’s not in question. The history of this area has a ton of mining. Belmont County supplied the largest producing coal in the state for decades. The history is here so this is the perfect site for this program.”