Tired of waiting for town officials to recognize the growing importance of pickleball, residents are organizing to find unused sites and raise money to build courts in several locations around town. One such site is the soggy wetland off Pond Road behind the town wells. Proponents argue that the area is basically useless except to snapping turtles and countless squiggly amphibians, and those current residents would have no objection to floating courts.
Preliminary conceptual plans call for easy access from the center of town, via environmentally sound pontoon bridges from the town beach and the Pond Road playing fields. Theoretically, ardent pickleballers could also reach the courts from an existing pathway to Barba’s Point, and easily by canoe or kayak from elsewhere on the pond.
Opponents of the plan cite environmental concerns too numerous to mention, and the battle is expected to be prolonged and exceptionally divisive. Members of the Bare Hill Pond Watershed Management Committee, the Conservation Commission, and the Parks and Recreation Commission say they have not been consulted about the proposal and have no comment that would be printable in a family newspaper.
