Editor’s note: Below find a special report about Church Hill’s ongoing l’affair pétanque. If you haven’t yet, please consider upgrading to keep independent journalism about your neighborhood free for all to read. Here’s how to submit tips, documents, correspondence, etc. with The Lookout for editorial consideration. Check the liveblog for reporting odds-and-ends about this controversy.—Dave.

Roughly a month and a half before bulldozers arrived in Chimborazo Playground to begin construction on new pétanque courts that caught many Church Hill residents off guard, the city of Richmond issued a purchase order for the work. The price: $36,004.00.

An unofficial memo circulated by Les Boulefrogs Pétanque Club of Virginia, the local club that has played the French bowling game in the neighborhood for two decades, had ballparked the construction at around $17,000. The city document, obtained by The Lookout through a public-records request, show a cost more than double that figure.

A full copy of the five-page order, dated March 13th, 2026, is available on The Lookout’s share drive.

The cache of documents released to The Lookout under Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act Monday afternoon also contained a proposal from a third-party vendor to the city outlining two potential scopes of work at Chimborazo Playground, both related to pétanque.

Under the heading “Two (2) New Petanque Courts with Timber Border. Approx. 50'x44' each,” the vendor, Tennis Courts, Inc. of Aylett, Virginia, detailed seven steps for the completion of the project, pricing it at $36,004. A second header, labeled “Option I,” describes a refurbishment of existing courts at a cost of $22,531. The proposal is signed in two places by an executive of Tennis Courts, Inc.; it is not signed by a city official. View it on The Lookout’s share drive.

The purchase order issued nine days after the proposal makes no mention of the $22,531 refurbishment. An April 6th email exchange between Ray Chavis of Richmond’s Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) and Ann Stinchcomb of Tennis Courts, Inc., obtained by The Lookout indicates that the department opted to “refurbish [the existing] courts later.”

In its public-records request, The Lookout asked for correspondence sent to or from key DPR officials “between January 1, 2026 and May 11th that mention the terms ‘petanque’ or ‘Chimborazo Playground.’” In its response, the city provided emails dating back to July 2025 that show Boulefrogs president Karen Morris-Rankin and secretary Mark Rankin, messaging with city employees about timelines, potential vendors, and an unofficial proposal “with construction specs and estimated costs for materials.” (Rankin is the husband of Morris-Rankin.) Respondents from DPR included deputy director, parks and cemeteries Shamar Young, deputy director; capital projects Nissa Richardson; senior capital projects manager Heywood Harrison; and Chavis, a programs and operations manager for recreation.

The president of Friends of Chimborazo Playground, Karen Shipman, is also copied on some of the emails. (The group has not responded to a Facebook Message requesting comment.) Together, the messages suggest a timeline that tracks with the one Morris-Rankin described to The Lookout in an interview earlier this month. The discussion was slow-going through much of last year, then picked up steam starting in January 2026. The email thread can be found on The Lookout’s share drive.

On April 22nd, DPR’s Harrison emailed Morris-Rankin directly to inform her that “Tennis Court Inc. will be grading and installing stone for the pétanque courts on May 5-6, paving May 13 the play pad,” an apparent reference to the park’s existing, erstwhile southwesterly pétanque court, which the club “ceded” due to flooding and now features a “surprise hoop.” This also comports with the sequence of events the Boulefrogs’ president has outlined: at a neighborhood meeting on May 10th, she told attendees the club had only found out DPR was moving forward with construction about two weeks in advance.

It is not clear whether there is a professionally drafted schematic for the construction work that took place earlier this month, beyond the text-only March 4th proposal from Tennis Courts, Inc. In a separate email exchange late last week, Tamara Jenkins, acting deputy director, public affairs in the Office of Strategic Communications & Civic Engagement (OSC), said that a Word document entitled “Proposed new petanque courts in Chimborazo Playground” provided by the Boulefrogs’ Rankin to members of the Church Hill Association’s (CHA) board earlier this month and reviewed by The Lookout was “the final version” of the layout planned for the new pétanque courts.

That proposal, which features pricing estimates and a layperson’s description of necessary materials and work, closely matches the description of a proposal Rankin said he had “worked up” for city officials in an email on January 9th of this year. (The corresponding attachment was not included in the files released by the city.) The Lookout has followed up with both OSC’s Jenkins and the Boulefrogs’ Morris-Rankin for clarification on the “final” document’s author. That document can be found on The Lookout’s share drive.

With questions still swirling over the controversial, improperly unpermitted construction, the CHA’s monthly meeting on Tuesday, May 19th is slated to feature discussion on l’affair pétanque with longtime 7th District councilmember and current president Cynthia Newbille, as well as a member of DPR staff. In an emailed midday Monday, Mayor Danny Avula’s press secretary, Mira Signer, told The Lookout that the long-running East End resident would not be in attendance due to a previous commitment.

Check The Lookout’s L’Affair Pétanque Liveblog for the latest reportage.

This has been a Lookout special report. Please submit tips, photos, etc. about the East End for editorial consideration. Consider upgrading your subscription and/or buying merch to support independent journalism about your neighborhood.