Pickleball players hope to have dedicated courts in Astoria

Feb. 6—A sport that is picking up steam across the country could soon have courts in Astoria.

Pickleball, the rapidly growing sport that combines aspects of tennis, pingpong and badminton, has begun to gain traction in communities on the North Coast within the past few years.

While several neighboring cities have built pickleball courts to meet the demand, Astoria residents interested in playing have had to play on gymnasium floors, tennis courts or go elsewhere due to the lack of dedicated courts.

Sports Serve Astoria, a group made up of local pickleball enthusiasts, is hoping to partner with the city to get pickleball courts built at Fred Lindstrom Park at Sixth Street and Niagara Avenue.

Meyer Freeman, who helped form the group, envisions a full resurfacing and the creation of four pickleball courts while keeping one tennis court. The plan also includes a resurfacing of the basketball court.

"There's an opportunity to really serve all of those sports," Freeman said.

Sports Serve is asking the city to pitch in $40,000, while the group hopes to raise $25,000 and land $25,000 more through grants. The money would go toward the project, as well as several other improvements at the park, including better lighting.

So far, Freeman said, the group has $11,000 in pledges.

"The approach right now from our standpoint is let's move forward as aggressively as we can with a fundraising campaign, demonstrate that there is strong support from individuals and businesses, raise a significant amount of the funding and then work with the city on their budget process," Freeman, who works for Clatsop Community College's Small Business Development Center, said.

Freeman gave a presentation to the city's Parks Advisory Board last month outlining the goals for the park. The board was generally in favor of their efforts, Jonah Dart-McLean, the city's parks and recreation director, said in an email, but did raise questions about the proposal, including noise, increased parking, the costs of maintenance and more.

"We are absolutely in support of making improvements to our park amenities and I'm appreciative that Meyer and his group are working to gain community support for this idea while being proactive in seeking alternative funding sources," Dart-McLean said.

Ideally, Freeman said, the project would be wrapped up this summer. But timing could be difficult with the city's budgeting process. Paul Benoit, a former city manager, is also a part of the group and is helping guide them through the process.

Public-private partnerships, Benoit said, are key to getting projects like this pushed forward.

In October, the city's Parks and Recreation Department provided materials to allow the group to paint pickleball lines on the tennis courts at the park.

While crediting the city and parks department for their assistance, Freeman said the surface of the courts is very rough.

"It gets some pretty crazy bounces and eats away at the ball pretty quickly," he said.

Freeman, who grew up on the North Coast, picked up pickleball after returning to Astoria in 2020. "Ever since then, I've been hooked," he said.

A former winner of the men's doubles division of the Dinko de Mayo tournament in Long Beach, Washington, Freeman began offering lessons last summer in Astoria and Gearhart. The interest quickly grew, he said.

Freeman rents out the gymnasium at St. Mary, Star of the Sea Catholic Church in Astoria on Saturdays to offer people a space to play. He also plans to help Seaside expand pickleball opportunities later this month.

Paula Brownhill, a former presiding judge of the Clatsop County Circuit Court, recently took up the sport and is also a member of Sports Serve.

"I noticed that people of all sizes and ages are playing this game — and playing well," Brownhill recalled. " ... That's interesting that so many different people can play."

Brownhill noted that she is not involved in the fundraising efforts because of her position as a part-time judge.

As pickleball has spread across communities, some projects to build courts have been held up or shut down entirely by neighbors concerned about noise. Freeman is not too worried about noise being a problem, but said the group plans to survey neighbors near the park and take feedback.

"Fred Lindstrom is such a great setting for those sports," he said. "It's such a community gathering place."

Work still needs to be done to determine if the courts could be adequately resurfaced. Freeman is optimistic that the project will come to fruition, and that interest in the sport will continue to increase.

"Just in the short time with the stuff we've done locally, it's pretty much exploded," he said. " ... I've never had an experience where anyone played the sport and didn't absolutely enjoy it. I think once people experience it, the numbers will grow quickly."