It wasn’t exactly a slam-dunk, but it was definitely a win for the home team. Thanks to a tenacious town staff and a substantial county parks fund, residents living in and around Discovery Bay’s Regatta Park will soon have a community basketball court to call their own.

“This (basketball court) is a fantastic addition to Regatta Park,” said CSD Treasurer Brian Dawson. “I would like to thank whole CSD board, as well as residents Georgia Addison and Maureen Dirk, and Fairin Perez and Virgil Koehne. This really was a community effort.”

Dawson – who lives in the Regatta Park neighborhood – led the charge last September, before he was on the CSD board, to install a basketball court in the Centex Development for the area’s youth. He even gathered local teens to speak before the CSD board.

“I’m new to Discovery Bay, said Kareem Flanagan, 16, during the Sept. 10 CSD meeting. “And I really wish I had a basketball court to play with my friends. I, we, will take care of it and protect it.”

The CSD heard Flanagan, and agreed to move forward on securing the dollars for the project. A few months ago, when the town’s new landscape manager, Perez, came on board, she learned about a parks-use fund available through the Department of Conservation. Perez received the CSD’s OK to pursue the funds, and learned last week that a $110,000 voucher would be made available to the town.

“We applied for this in May and it was approved at the county level in June,” said Perez. “It’s all very exciting.”

According to Perez, a design for the full-size, high school regulation court is currently being developed, and she hopes to be able to bring a design back to the CSD board at the July 21 regular meeting.

“The board has been so supportive of this project and it’s great to see it moving forward,” said Perez. “Our plan, our hope, is to get this all done before the rains come, hopefully by November.”