After complaints about loud pickleball, Patton Township will spend $102K to convert courts
Due to noise complaints from neighbors, the pickleball courts at Green Hollow Park in Patton Township will be converted back to tennis courts after new pickleball courts are constructed at another park, costing the township a total of $102,089.
Bernel Road Park has four existing tennis courts; Patton Township Supervisors voted during a Sept. 8 meeting to convert two of those courts into six pickleball courts. The cost of the conversion will be $66,303 and construction is expected to take place in late spring 2022, Doug Erickson, Patton Township manager, told the Centre Daily Times.
Construction should take between one and two months, Supervisor Anita Thies said during a township meeting.
This comes after the township and supervisors began hearing noise complaints from neighbors of Green Hollow Park. Erickson said the courts at Green Hollow Park were previously tennis courts; the pickleball courts were installed in summer 2019.
Pickleball combines many elements of tennis, badminton and ping-pong, and can be played both indoors or outdoors on a badminton-sized court and a slightly modified tennis net, according to the USA Pickleball Association. It’s played with a paddle and a plastic ball with holes. Pickleball has been said to be one of the fastest growing sports in the country.
“After we put the pickleball courts in at Green Hollow, we started getting some complaints from some of the neighbors about the noise,” Erickson said. “Pickleball uses different equipment than tennis. It’s a different paddle and a different kind of ball; it’s a hard paddle and a hard plastic ball, so it makes a whole different noise than tennis makes. It is louder.”
He said the neighbors found the noise to be “pretty annoying” and eventually the supervisors became involved in trying to resolve the issue. The board instituted reduced playing hours for pickleball at Green Hollow as a compromise. It provided some relief to the residents, Erickson said, but still allowed for some pickleball action.
The pickleball players understood the issues, he said.
“People say they’ve made lots of new friendships and things, so they want to see the sport continue to grow. But ... they understand that the neighbors have some concerns too,” Erickson said.
Previously, the Green Hollow Park courts were the only dedicated pickleball courts in any public park in the Centre Region. But now, the YMCA also has several pickleball courts available.
“Before the Y opened, the courts were being used really heavily ... there were people there pretty much constantly,” Erickson said. “Since the Y opened their courts, the usage has dropped off quite a bit.”
Once the courts at the more secluded Bernel Road are available for play, the Green Hollow courts will be turned back into tennis courts, he said. That’s expected to cost $35,786. Once those courts are converted, pickleball play will not be permitted.
While players wait for the new courts to be installed at Bernel Road Park, the Green Hollow Park courts will have reduced winter hours. After conducting a non-scientific survey of residents and non-residents, supervisors voted to set the hours of 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday between Oct. 1 and March 13, 2022.
