Board of Selectmen

Pickleball Courts at Mead To Get New Bluestone Patio Area

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Town officials last week approved an approximately $70,000 contract to install a new patio area outside the hugely popular pickleball courts at Mead Park. It wasn’t immediately clear when the new bluestone patio will be installed in the northwest area of the park, though funds for the project are available in the current budget year, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann, meaning they could be released quickly. When the town installed five pickleball courts two years ago where a single public hard-surface tennis had been located, the footprint of the new playing area created some leftover room, Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting, held June 6 at Town Hall and via videoconference. “So now we have a large area of unused space that right now is gravel,” Mann said. “When we met with the DOJ they felt that the gravel is not a suitable material.

Board of Selectmen

Public Works: New Pickleball Courts at Mead on Track for Late-June or Early-July Opening

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Town officials on Tuesday approved about $200,000 in contracts for the widely anticipated pickleball court installation project at Mead Park. The five pickleball courts that will replace the hard-surface all-season public tennis court at Mead should be ready for a late-June or early-July opening, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. 

The project includes replacement of a tennis backboard adjacent to the existing court and will see that practice area raised so it’s on-grade with the new pickleball area, Mann told members of the Board of Selectmen at their regular meeting, held via videoconference. “Pickleball is probably one of the fastest-growing sports in the country,” Mann said.”We are behind our neighbors as far as court installation.”

First Selectman Kevin Moynihan and Selectmen Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams voted 3-0 in favor of a $195,504 contract with West Haven-based Hinding Tennis Courts, LLC. The Parks & Recreation Commission heard a presentation on the project last month. Mann said that since then the town fielded concerns from a resident regarding noise from the planned courts, as well as location and proximity to neighbors. 

The all-season tennis court that is to be converted into pickleball courts is located near the western edge of Mead Park and the Metro-North railroad tracks, behind the colonnade (it’s not one of the eight clay courts at Mead).

Government

Five ‘Pickleball’ Courts To Replace Hard-Surface Tennis Area at Mead Park

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Town officials say they’re converting a standalone hard-surface public tennis court at Mead Park into a series of “pickleball” courts for use by New Canaan residents. Located up behind the collonade on the western edge of Mead, a tennis practice wall area also will be converted into a a pickle ball court so there will be five in total, under a plan that’s expected to go before the Board of Selectmen later this month, according to Public Works Director Tiger Mann. “The overall thought is to redo that hard court at the top, take away the trees that are along the railroad tracks, since they are damaging most of it, resurface or put an entire post-tension concrete surface below, surface the top of it, put in new fencing and then some additional trees in the back just as a buffer to soften the look along the railroad tracks,” Mann told members of the Parks & Recreation Commission at their regular meeting, held March 10 via videoconference. 

The practice wall will remain with a pickleball court lined out on what will be the new post-tension concrete surface that will bring it up to the same grade/level as the other four, Mann said while showing schematics drawn up by West Haven-based Hinding Tennis LLC. Asked when he’d like to start the project, Mann said, “Now.” Once the concrete for the surface is poured, it takes about three weeks to cure, according to Recreation Director Steve Benko. Pickleball is a “paddleball sport” of two to four players “that combines elements of badminton, table tennis, and tennis,” according to Wikipedia.