Marblehead League of Women Voters Observer Corps
Observer Corps Reports are provided by volunteers from the Marblehead League of Women Voters. To learn more about the League and its activities, see my.lwv.org/massachusetts/marblehead.
BOARD: Recreation and Parks Commission
DATE: Tuesday, July 18 (in person, not recorded)
OBSERVER: Kay Rieper
Pickleball
The meeting was called to order by the chair, Matt Martin. All members were present. The minutes of the previous two meetings (June 6 and June 27) were approved.
The main purpose of this meeting was to inform the public about what the commission has been doing about the handling of the many concerns of both the pickleball players and the abutting neighbors, and to try to work with both groups.
At the Vets’ courts, there is a plan to plant arborvitae as a noise mitigation. The sum of $2,000 has been donated for this, which is half the cost, and it must be approved by the DPW.
At Seaside, it was moved and approved to make Court No. 2 a “dual” court, making a pickleball court on each side of the tennis net with portable nets and taped lines for 45 days. It was also moved and approved to limit reservations to one 90-minute time slot per day.
Other suggestions included a pickleball tournament to raise money for court upkeep and a user fee for the same reason. This was considered unfair unless there was a user fee for all sports for field and court usage.
A plan to turn the lights on at the Seaside pickleball court (Court No. 1) until 10 p.m. was approved but then rejected in deference to the neighbors. Neighbors also complained about people playing at 6 a.m. when the courts are not supposed to open until 8.
At the Vets, players are playing later than the 4:30 p.m. end time. Better signage will be posted as soon as possible.
Plans for pickleball programming for adults and children are in the works, but they would take up court playing time.
Neighbors asked that there be better progress on less noisy paddles and balls.
Correspondence
Several wedding requests were approved. Recreation Director Jaime Bloch is working with the Marblehead Housing Authority to find the best location for a 100-person event on Aug. 20, 2-4 p.m.
Next meeting
The next meeting will be Aug. 1 at 6:30.