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Date: 10/6/2023
AMHERST — Plans for a three-court pickleball course at Kiwanis Park were reviewed recently by town officials and are expected to move out to the bidding phase.
Recreation Director Rey Harp said coincidentally the first meeting he took after assuming his role two years ago was concerning the construction of pickleball courts in the town.
“The first or second day on the job there were members of the community who were really interested in using CPA dollars for public pickleball courts,” he said.
Harp said it was a lot of hard work by committee members and members of the community who wanted the chance to play.
“They looked, they sighted Mill River and the initial parking lot when you go into the Mill River Recreation Area as the site they wanted,” he said. “It made a lot of sense to try and put it over there but a number of us in town were concerned about losing parking spaces and concerned about the impact of a lot of different parts about that project so we did commit ourselves to looking at pickleball but we weren’t beholden to that spot.”
Harp said after about a year of consideration for other locations as well as costs and benefits a site at Kiwanis Park was settled upon.
“We were able to find space at the Stanley Street Park,” Harp said. “There’s a little bit of landscaping that has to happen in that area but it’s work that the public wants and is necessary for that space but also is minimally intrusive for the rest of the park.”
At the Sept. 18 Recreation meeting Harp outlined the plans for the three-court course to be set outside the existing softball field.
Harp agreed there are some challenges ahead in terms of properly shading and securing the area but the location is a good one.
“It actually is nestled in a nice space over there.” he said.
With the popularity of pickleball on the rise, Harp said this undertaking hits several marks for the town including intergenerational programming within the Recreation Department.
“It’s fast growing among seniors and former competitive athletes,” he said. “We’d like to be able to introduce it to newer generations and to do a little bit more of our mission in recreation which is to connect to the school curriculum and connect to young folks.”
Harp said there are members of the community paying close attention to the project and a letter has been dispatched to the surrounding neighborhoods detailing the plans and the process ahead for the pickleball courts.
“It’s not the same as when the town asked about other projects, there’s been other projects,” he said. “They looked at that site or looked at trying to develop the neighborhood in different ways, this is minimally intrusive, relatively speaking this is minimally intrusive to the people in the area.”
As far as when the first ball may drop on the brand-new courts, Harp said there is a target date he would like to make.
“I would love to plan for two springs from now.” he said.