If voters at Town Meeting agree, a tennis court in disrepair off Point Road will become four pickleball courts by the end of the year after the Marion Community Preservation Committee voted to recommend the Town of Marion Recreation Department’s request for $75,000 in Community Preservation Act funding.
The request was one of 10 approved by the committee for recommendation to voters during the committee’s continued public hearing held live on March 10 via Zoom.
Recreation Director Scott Tavares told the committee he has received several requests for pickleball courts in Marion.
New England Seal Coating will resurface the dilapidated tennis courts, painting new lines and installing four sets of ground sleeves and four pickleball nets. Around the playing areas will be an 8-foot-tall, continuous fence with two entry gates. That is included in the funding.
“I’m not looking into lighting at this point,” said Tavares, explaining neighborhood considerations and the need for a testing ground.
Unlike tennis’ fuzzy ball, a pickleball resembles a heavier whiffle ball, and the paddles are not strung but constructed with a flat surface, giving off a clicking noise when the ball is struck.
CPC member Bryan McSweeny noted the ongoing conflict in the City of Cambridge over the noise coming from pickleball courts.
Select Board Representative Randy Parker said the neighbors in the area have some issues with parking but not with pickleball.
The wildly popular sport is the fastest-growing sport in the U.S.
With one withdrawal, the CPC unanimously approved the remaining nine requests in rapid fashion, having already hashed out their questions in prior sessions of the public hearing and before that, informational meetings.
The CPC approved: $25,000 to the local Historic District Study Group (unused funds expire June 30, 2025), $35,000 to the Marion Historical Commission for Phase IV of its historical and cultural inventory (December 31, 2025), $26,928 to the Marion Institute, $85,000 to the Marion Department of Public Works for its interest in Mattapoisett River Valley Water District’s resilience project (June 30, 2024), $9,150 to Loving Touch Gravesite Care, $15,000 to the Sippican Lands Trust to complete construction of the Osprey Marsh pavilion, $35,000 to Marion Art Center for fire and smoke alarms (June 30, 2024), $17,500 to Marion Natural History Museum for cataloguing work, $30,000 to Sippican Historical Society for ongoing digitization.
Committee Chair Jeff Doubrava recommended the committee fund the requests from the non-designated account.
The committee then addressed two applications for extensions to June 30, 2024, from the Marion Garden Group and the Pathways Committee. Doubrava and Parker agreed that the extensions should likewise go before voters on Town Meeting floor.
The withdrawn project was a $12,529 request from the Elizabeth Taber Library.
Marion Community Preservation Committee
By Mick Colageo
This is silly.