Boy Scout Troop 32 member Zachary Salvatore Lisa, flanked by Councilwoman Karen Bergman and Mayor Gillian, was honored for achieving the rank of Eagle Scout.
By Donald Wittkowski
City Council approved a construction contract Tuesday night to build the first permanent courts for Ocean City’s pickleball players, capping years of debate and searching for the right location.
The $593,700 contract, awarded to Command Company Inc. of Egg Harbor City, also includes improvements to the city’s tennis courts as part of a compromise agreement that created the spot for pickleball.
Under the plan, three existing artificial-turf tennis courts at 18th Street and Haven Avenue, next to the Ocean City Intermediate School, will be converted into12 pickleball courts having an asphalt surface.
Although three of the tennis courts will be reconfigured for pickleball, three other turf courts at 18th and Haven will remain exclusively for tennis. Those three tennis courts will be resurfaced with new artificial turf as part of the construction contract awarded Tuesday.
In addition, the contractor will convert four existing asphalt tennis courts at 34th Street into an artificial-turf playing surface. Artificial turf, a carpet-like surface, is favored by some tennis players, particularly older ones, because it puts less stress on knees and other joints than asphalt courts.
Mayor Jay Gillian, expressing his desire to end the controversy once and for all, gave the city’s director of Community Services, Michael Allegretto, the task of working out an agreement to satisfy the tennis and pickleball communities. Gillian credited Allegretto for bringing both sides to the table and also praised the pickleball and tennis players for their willingness to compromise.
“In the end, I really believe we made as many people as possible happy,” the mayor said after Council voted to award the contract.
Mayor Jay Gillian, right, conferring with Business Administrator Jim Mallon, praised both sides for the compromise plan.
Tennis players initially had resisted relinquishing some of their courts at 18
Terry McKenna, a tennis representative, endorsed the agreement during his remarks to Council.
No one from the pickleball community spoke during the Council meeting.
The plan will give pickleball players their first permanent outdoor location and provide enough courts to accommodate the fast-growing sport. Popular with senior citizens, pickleball is played with paddles and a small ball over a net. It combines elements of tennis, ping-pong and badminton.
Gillian said the pickleball courts will expand the city’s recreation attractions. He called them a community asset.
“It brings a lot of the community together,” he said.
For several years, pickleball players had been urging city officials to build them permanent outdoor courts. The issue was complicated last year when the city abandoned plans to convert a public parking lot at Shelter Road and Tennessee Avenue into new pickleball site.
After more searching and discussion, the city’s recreation complex at 18th and Haven emerged as the choice for pickleball. There are some concerns, however, that the new pickleball courts will create excessive noise and add to parking problems at the site.
While speaking to Council in September, Gillian said the city may consider planting trees around the courts as a way to muffle the noise.
The city intends to talk to the Board of Education about the possibility of using a school-owned athletic field at 18th Street for parking, Gillian and Allegretto said.
Boy Scout Troop 32 member Zachary Salvatore Lisa, flanked by Councilwoman Karen Bergman and Mayor Gillian, was honored for achieving the rank of Eagle Scout.
In other business Tuesday, the mayor and Council honored Zachary Salvatore Lisa of Ocean City’s Boy Scout Troop 32 for achieving the rank of Eagle
Scout. For his Eagle Scout project, Lisa installed drains at the children’s playground site at the municipal airport to protect it from flooding.
“The rank of Eagle Scout is probably one of the greatest things you’ll achieve in your life,” Gillian told Lisa after reading a city proclamation in his honor.
Lisa, 18, an Ocean City High School graduate, is in his freshman year at Rowan University. He thanked his Boy Scout leaders and fellow Scouts for their support while he was working on his project.
“Thanks for sticking with me. It was a bumpy and long journey, but we got here,” he said.
