Wakefield pickleball players wish to share tennis courts with planned skateboard park

By CHARITY SMITH

csmith@yourdailyglobe.com

Wakefield - After months of anticipation, planning and fundraising to build a skate park on the Eddy Park tennis courts by middle school students at the Wakefield-Marenisco School, a monkey wrench has now been thrown in, which may alter their plans within weeks of opening.

Area pickleball players Lorraine Mussatti and Julie Hautala made a request to the Wakefield city council on Monday for permission to create two pickleball courts on the same tennis courts.

The women said they had measured the area and could effectively share the space with the skate board park. They offered a drawing of how the space could be shared by skateboarders and pickleball players.

"It is pretty new to our area, but it is the fastest growing sport in the U.S. right now," said Mussatti of the game of pickleball, a form of deck tennis played inside and out. "This isn't just like a retiree's sport. This is a sport that everybody is playing. In fact, the best female pickleball player in the U.S. is 15 years old. So it is a sport that lots of people are playing and we would love to teach all of you."

Hautala said they have pickleball games six to seven days a week, and have more people joining them every day. She said with only the one court, they have in the municipal building's gym, it is a little challenging for everyone to get to play. According to Hautala, they have 10 to 12 people wanting to play at a time.

The council forwarded the issue to the planning commission for further consideration. It met on Tuesday.

Mayor Dale White told the planning commission on Tuesday that the students had made two fine presentations on converting the tennis courts into a skateboard park.

"We looked into it, we watched their PowerPoints and thought they were very informative, and very well put together," said White.

"Our biggest thing I think we should look at is that the kids had it in the beginning," said commission member Dion DelFavero.

"We can't tell (the kids), 'Well you've raised this money and now we're going to cut your court,'" said commissioner Marco Movrich.

DelFavero said that the commission had made their decision to allow the kids to use the tennis courts with the understanding that the school was going to have some pickleball courts built.

White said they should pump the brakes and meet the kids and the school's skateboard club's supervisor Chris Tweiten at the tennis courts to get an idea as to roughly how much space the skate park will encompass.

The commission also said they need to get a hold of the pickleball enthusiasts and see if they are able to guarantee funding.

The commission voted to table the discussion on the pickleball courts.