Pickleball groups continue to ask tennis players to sacrifice Chapel Hill public tennis courts. In 2017, the Parks &Rec department and commission board approved the conversion of two of the six tennis courts at Ephesus to dedicated Pickleball courts.
Six PickleBall courts were created. Since this time, the PickleBall courts have been resurfaced three times and nets have been replaced three times. The remaining Ephesus tennis courts have never been resurfaced during this time. At one point, a net was taken down because the tennis court was deemed “unsafe”.
Pickleball players have now relentlessly proposed to take over an additional two of the tennis courts 50% of time for dedicated PickleBall play.
The tennis community has provided data to show that the courts are used by youth, families, students, and adults, all most entirely from the local taxpaying community. Culbreth Middle School uses the Ephesus Courts as their home courts for boys and girls tennis teams. This past summer, youth tennis camps were given to over 200 children during 9 weeks of summer camps. It is a large drop-in community of local Chapel Hill citizens.
A recent survey taken by Parks & Rec of Pickleball and Tennis players showed:
- 90 % of tennis respondents were from Chapel Hill/Orange County
- 52 % of Pickleball respondents were from Chapel Hill/Orange County
The tennis community has asked Parks and Rec for improvement to these tennis courts. They have repeatedly asked for the scheduling of tennis classes which have in the past been popular, but Parks and Rec has only listed tennis classes at Hargraves on their website. In spite of the data supporting tennis at Ephesus, Parks, Greenways and Recreation Commission board will be considering a proposal to reduce tennis playing options at Ephesus.
There are lots of unanswered questions:
- Originally the request was turned down by the Parks and Rec director, but now the proposal is being considered. What changed?
- Parks and Rec has been asked to look at other locations and options that could be used by PickleBall. There has not been any documentation to support this investigation has been performed. There are other locations like Southern Community Park and Hargraves that less number of users.
- Whay have PickleBall courts been resurfaced and maintain and tennis courts are neglected?
- Renovations for Cedar Falls and Hargraves are planned for renovations but the funds from a bond fell far short for doing the renovations. When/if this renovations are started, the courts may be out of commission for 9-12 months? Where will these tennis go during this time. There will only be 2 full time playable public tennis courts remaining during this time.
- The mayor and family members are active advocating for more PickleBall courts. What role’s have they played behind the scenes in affecting decisions? There is evidence that Parks and Rec has not been open and misrepresented data supporting the tennis community. It is definitely questionable.
Adam Searing wrote an op-ed stating Chapel Hill has a “parks problem”. And now Chapel Hill has a public tennis problem. Its become known as “PickleGate”. Will the Commission Board members be manipulated into being part of it? Stay tuned.
I play pickleball at Ephesus around 15 hours per week. During that time, it’s often that we have 4-5 courts worth of players (16-20 people) waiting to play. And it’s very rare that more than two of those tennis courts (usually just 2-4 people) are in use. The numbers just don’t appear to work in favor of tennis for spending public dollars.