Highlands Park in Flossmoor will be getting a tennis court and two pickleball courts as the Homewood-Flossmoor Park District makes improvements to counter the removal of two courts at Heather Hill Park.

The park district sold its property adjacent to Heather Hill School to the village of Flossmoor. The land will be used for a detention basin as the village works to relieve flooding issues in downtown Flossmoor and in the Heather Hill neighborhood.

Doug Boehm, executive director of the park district, hosted an informational meeting for residents on Tuesday, July 16. He said all the money from the sale of Heather Hill Park will go into improvements at Highlands Park, Crescent Drive and Kathleen Lane. The village paid $425,000 for the land.

The park now has two ball fields, but only one field is used by Flossmoor Baseball on a regular basis. The courts will take up most of the outfield of the north ball field. Boehm said representatives of Flossmoor Baseball were consulted and didn’t find the plan would cause any problems for the organization. The old dugouts will be removed.

Rather than replace both tennis courts, the park district is giving the community a tennis court and two pickleball courts. Demand for pickleball courts has grown in the past several years.

Boehm said other planned amenities for the park include benches and permanent bag-toss games. He said rather than moveable wooden frames for the cornhole game, the park district will install cement frames. Other improvements will be done if money remains in the budget.

The park district will begin the process of soliciting bids for the tennis/pickleball courts installation. Boehm said he is hopeful the work can be done before winter. If not, it will be a priority for spring.