QUINCY - Quincy is building new basketball courts with lighting at three of the city parks.

The Quincy City Council approved the $287,947 bid from Granite Construction Company after discussing whether the city should construct a new court at East Park. 

The bid came after Councilmember Jeremy McCreary suggested adding to a proposal to build a basketball court at Lauzier Park. He suggested building new courts in neighborhood parks, saying the existing ones are overcrowded.

The Public Utility and Enterprises Committee recommended building the courts at Lauzier and North Park, but waiting on building courts at East Park, City Engineer Ariel Belino said.

"Somebody suggested instead of putting a basketball court at East Park, just construct a skate park," he said. 

Councilmember Scott Lybbert agreed with delaying new courts at East Park, saying he wanted to have more recreation options available.

"While I support activities for our youth, when the total project comes out to be over $250,000, I have heartburn spending that much money on one type of activity," he said. "The only reason I didn't shoot down another (part of the project) here is it would be cheaper to come in and do some of these at the same time."

Lybbert continued, saying the city could build a skate park for a good price, and have activities about using helmets. 

McCreary questioned how popular a skate park would be, saying he knows children walking six to eight blocks across the city to get to the nearest court.

Lybbert answered, saying creating the skate park will spark an interest in skating.

"It's like putting a Baskin-Robbins in town, you're going to go buy ice cream there," he said. "You may not be buying ice cream at Akins right now, (but) you're going to buy ice cream once in a while at Baskin-Robbins."

Councilmember Paul Worley disagreed with Lybbert, saying it would be better to add courts at East Park while the construction company was working in the city.

"We've got the guys in town. We've got a decent bid out there and we have the money at this time, $42,000 is a drop in the bucket towards (the skate park,)" he said.

Councilmember Jose Saldana wanted to include the basketball courts in East Park, saying the city needed more in that section of the city.