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MINUTES OF THE <br />ORONO PARK COMMISSION <br />April 3, 2023 <br />6:00 o’clock p.m. <br />_____________________________________________________________________________________ <br /> <br />Page 2 of 11 <br /> <br />Porter presented a graph showing the positive and negative points of several possible pickleball sites <br />including the five identified initially and four more added since the work session. The sites included the <br />golf course, Casco Rink, Hackberry Park, Fire Station One, the public works site, the Navarre <br />playground, O.K. Kids, Bederwood Park and working with the school district. Committees looked at each <br />site in terms of can it support four to six pickleball courts, adequate parking, restrooms, distance to the <br />nearest homes, whether pickleball can be built without displacing another activity, and the ability to <br />support traffic flow with minimal disruption to the park. <br /> <br />Duval reported on the Navarre playground located behind the Town Center shops. Currently there are <br />116 spaces in the parking lot., however there is work planned on the parking lot that could include adding <br />some islands. There is a sport court and a playground at the site. Duval said it would take quite a bit of <br />earthwork to level the site to put all the courts in one place and that would also impact the playground, but <br />they could be built in two sections on the top and bottom of the slope. That would also have the least <br />impact on the playground, would only take about5 14 parking spaces and would be the same distance to <br />residences as the existing sport court. <br /> <br />Porter said the next place that came up was Bederwood Park. Bederwood is a lot more open facility but <br />pickleball courts could not be built without displacing or moving some existing infrastructure. There is a <br />playground and a ballfield. He said Stofer was taking a look at the schools. They currently do have <br />pickleball lines painted on the tennis courts out front and they are available when the school is not using <br />the courts. <br /> <br />Stofer said he and Roach had a conversation with the woman who does the scheduling at the school and <br />activity center. They have a lot of pickleball programming happening there. A pro is teaching beginner <br />classes on those four courts and the net height is not ideal for pickleball. But they are getting a lot of use <br />out of those programs. They seemed receptive to working with us to try to find a joint solution. And we're <br />working towards having a meeting to further discuss the O.K. Kids site. As long as pickleball is not a <br />high school sport, they don't have plans today to include those on school grounds. But there does seem to <br />be possibility for a stronger partnership between the Parks Commission and the school district to try to <br />find something in this general area. <br /> <br />Porter said the final new site that was brought up was the new public works site. My understanding is that <br />it'd be very challenging to utilize the grounds there and that just being an active public works site, they <br />wouldn't allow a lot of access. Based on these findings, my top recommendation is still the golf course. <br />I've heard a lot of concerns from residents about safety, about noise, about traffic. These are all things that <br />we would have to look into and mitigate and that would happen during the planning phase. I just had the <br />opportunity to vacation in in Mexico, where we got to play a lot of pickleball. All five courts were used <br />every morning for multiple hours by the residents who live in or around this community. They had a <br />building about 200 feet away that had some space to work. I took my laptop and worked there one day <br />just trying to understand the noise level and at 200 feet, I was straining to hear the noise of pickleball.