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07/17/2018 03:45 PMMore than 25 passionate pickleball players came out to the July 10 Board of Selectmen’s meeting to show support for a new town plan to put pickleball courts at the Main Street Connection Park.
“We started a pickleball league here three years ago with the Parks & Recreation Department. We have 25 people signed up,” said Kathy Coogan.
Coogan said that currently, the league plays indoors twice a week at the Town Recreation Center’s basketball court, but the sport is so popular Coogan said the town really needs to have more places where people of all ages can play.
“Most of the surrounding towns have painted [tennis courts] for pickle ball. But there’s no place for us to play” in town, said Coogan.
Pickleball is a racket sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton and ping-pong. Each player uses a solid paddle to hit a plastic ball with holes in it back and forth across the net. A pickleball court is 44 feet long by 20 feet wide, about half the size of a standard tennis court measurement of 78 feet in length by 27 feet in width. Many tennis courts are now painted with both pickleball and tennis court lines, with the pickleball lines appearing in blue and the tennis court lines in white. Two pickleball courts fit on one tennis court, though some players prefer spaces dedicated to pickle ball, which is the proposal currently under consideration in Old Saybrook.
Coogan and others praised Parks & Recreation Director Ray Allen for supporting a plan to add pickleball courts at the Main Street Connection Park and First Selectman Carl Fortuna, Jr., for moving the plan forward so quickly.
The proposed courts would be constructed in the park’s grassy area that lies between the western end of the parking lot and the town’s emergency communications tower enclosure.
In December 2016, the town secured Zoning Commission approval of a site plan for the Main Street Connection Park that showed a public recreation area with bocce courts in the open area between the end of the lot and the communications tower. To put pickleball courts in this area in place of the bocce courts would be considered a change to the town’s approved site plan.
Whether or not the Zoning Commission (ZC) deems this change to be major or minor will be up to the Zoning Commission; it was set to discuss this issue and make a determination at its July 16 meeting (after press time). If considered a minor change, the commission will allow the zoning enforcement officer to approve the site plan revision administratively. If the shift from bocce courts to pickleball courts is viewed as a major change, the town would have to re-apply. This would require a new zoning application accompanied by a revised site plan for the Main Street Connection Park. Before the ZC would vote, a public hearing would be held.
At the July 10 BOS meeting, Fortuna told the attendees that $35,000 of the original $500,000 Small-Town Economic Assistance Program (STEAP) grant that funded the Main Street Connection Park project remains.
“The State [Office of Community and Economic Development] said yes, we can switch from bocce to pickleball courts,” said Fortuna. “On Tuesday, [July 17] I will bring up the proposal to the Board of Finance.”
Fortuna secured quotes from Hinding Tennis to estimate the costs of the proposed project. To build two pickleball courts at the park site would cost $55,000; to build three, $87,000. The proposed design uses a long-lived post-tension concrete base for the pickleball courts. This option would give the courts a guarantee for a 20-year life, as opposed to an asphalt base that would have a shorter life span.
To complete the park plan by building the three pickleball courts, town leaders and then voters at Town Meeting would need to approve $55,000 to supplement the $35,000 in grant funds the town already has set aside.
“The utility of building three [pickleball] courts makes sense to me,” said Fortuna. “This [design] does not include lights, but would include installation of [electrical] conduit for lights.”
“I’m amazed that you’ve gotten this far,” Coogan told Fortuna.
If the town’s proposed shift from bocce to pickleball courts is found by the ZC on July 16 to be a minor site plan change, on July 17, Fortuna will present the proposed park improvement and associated cost estimates to the town’s Board of Finance for consideration. After that, the town’s Board of Selectmen would consider a project appropriation; if approved, it would then go to the Board of Finance for approval before being sent to Town Meeting for a vote.