Photo: Madison Rogers/WBZ NewsRadio
SWAMPSCOTT, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Plans to open four new pickleball courts at Phillips Park in Swampscott were knocked out of bounds at a town meeting this week.
Town meeting members heard arguments for and against the proposal, which would have used around $56,000 of state grant money from Parkland Acquisitions and Renovations for Communities to build the courts.
Swampscott Director of Community and Economic Development Marzie Galazka said that around the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the town was swamped with requests to put in pickleball courts.
"Pickleball is the fastest growing sport in popularity," Galazka said.
But opponents did not want to hear it, literally.
"I don’t want to hear the noise," one resident said.
"Residents who live near pickleball courts find the sound produced by the sport intolerable," concurred neighbor Jim Smith. "Phillips Park is a very flat and wide open area. The sound carries especially well."
There were also concerns over flooding, since Phillips Park is in the middle of a floodplain.
"There must be another place in this town, at a higher level, to have the pickleball courts," one man argued.
The measure narrowly failed to garner the two-thirds support needed to pass, leaving Phillips Park unpickled.
WBZ's Madison Rogers (@MadisonWBZ) reports.
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