Pickleball Community Asks For More Courts
Tuesday, October 18th, 2022
There was a larger crowd than normal for Monday night's meeting of the Dalton Mayor and Council. Members of the local pickleball-playing community gathered in the audience to ask city leaders for more pickleball courts. The fast-growing sport has caught on in a big way in Dalton since the conversion of the old tennis courts at Brookwood Park into pickleball courts three years ago.
"There are two types of people in this world: people who love pickleball, and those who haven’t played it yet," said Dalton resident Andy Rollins in his address to the Mayor and Council during the meeting's public comment period.
Rollins explained that pickleball players in Dalton have formed a non-profit organization to advance the sport in Dalton in cooperation with the city's Parks and Recreation Department. The organization's goal is to take responsibility for putting together leagues and hosting tournaments, taking that burden away from the city department. Rollins asked the Mayor and Council to commit to converting the four tennis courts on the west side of Lakeshore Park into 12 pickleball courts to expand the opportunities for pickleball players in Dalton. In addition to Parks and Rec pickleball facilities at Brookwood Park and the Mack Gaston Community Center, there are also pickleball facilities at local gyms and churches.
Photo caption: A large group of pickleball enthusiasts gathered in the audience for Monday night's meeting of the Dalton Mayor and Council
"People are already waiting for court time. Demand will likely ebb in the cold weather months, but come next spring we are going to have a major problem on our hands with Parks and Rec managing a traffic jam at our pickleball courts," Rollins said.
Dalton resident Ken Ellinger opposed the idea of converting the tennis courts in question, while also agreeing there is a need to build more pickleball courts in the city. Ellinger is an avid player of both sports, but pointed out that the four courts at Lakeshore Park are very important to Dalton's large and active tennis community.
"I just want to make a quick pitch for not taking those four tennis courts, that is not the answer in my opinion," Ellinger said. "Only having 16 tennis courts [at Lakeshore Park] is really going to be a problem going forward for hosting state tournaments, they really want 20 courts there in one location. And the big thing is, in the summertime [those four courts] are shaded by the hill, so in the summer those four courts are in the highest demand."
"I’m just hoping we can find a place to build pickleball courts whether it’s at Lakeshore or somewhere else without actually taking away from the tennis courts at Lakeshore," Ellinger said.
Caption: A Google Maps satellite view shows the Lakeshore Park campus including the four tennis courts at the left of the image which are the courts in question
After about fifteen minutes of commentary from three residents from the crowd of attendees present to show their support, Mayor David Pennington told the crowd that the council supports expanding the pickleball offerings for Dalton.
"This council, well 3 of us, approved the first pickleball courts three years ago in Dalton... we’re very open minded to this," Pennington said, adding that the council has asked city administrator Andrew Parker and Parks and Recreation director Caitlin Sharpe to coordinate with the pickleball and tennis communities to find the best solution. "They talked about another location out in Al Rollins Park, a baseball field that is not being used so maybe we could do even more courts than what you’re asking for."
There is a public commentary period at the beginning of every meeting of the Dalton Mayor and Council. Speakers are asked to sign up immediately before the meeting to speak using forms that are located in the City Council chamber. The Mayor and Council meet on the first and third Monday of every month at 6:00 pm. The next meeting of the Mayor and Council is scheduled for November 7th.
