By Sunayana Prabhu
RED BANK – The pickleball boom is real. That was evident at the borough’s recent parks and recreation committee meeting Feb. 6 when pickleball players, almost 25 of them, turned up at a public input session to discuss continuing improvements to East Side Park.
Located on the corner of Mechanic Street and Harrison Avenue on the border with Fair Haven, the park has undergone two renovation phases and is currently in Phase 3 of upgrades.
The pickleball die-hards asked the borough “to implement pickleball into tennis courts” at the park, explained Oscar Salinas, parks and recreation director, in a phone interview with The Two River Times.
East Side Park has softball leagues, soccer leagues and avid basketball players, but the majority of supporters at the Monday meeting were pickleballers.
“Pickleball is what they call the fastest growing sport in America,” pickleball player and Red Bank resident Pat Pinto told The Two River Times in an interview after the meeting. She requested the borough upgrade the park in time for the 2023 pickleball season.
In its 2023 participation report, the Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP) said 36.5 million adult Americans played pickleball in 2022, putting the onus on local parks to innovate and implement changes in order to include playing areas for the sport, usually within existing tennis courts.
Pinto, who was unable to attend the Monday meeting, sent a statement to be read by resident Nancy Facey-Blackwood on behalf of the pickleball group. According to the statement, with the East Side Park courts in need of repair, the group has been playing mostly at Fair Haven Fields.
In her statement, Pinto noted that Fair Haven has updated their court reservation system which she fears will effectively lock non-Fair Haven residents out of court time. Prior to this year, the reservation system in placeallowed for everyone, no matter their town of residence, to book courts four days in advance. Now, Fair Haven residents can book four days in advance while other Monmouth County residents must wait until two days prior to book. “This will basically lock us (Red Bank residents) out of the ability to reserve given the popularity of the sport,” said Pinto in the statement.
She asked the borough to consider using the same registration system for East Side Park once the courts are ready and that priority be given to Red Bank residents.
According to Pinto, neighboring communities of Fair Haven, Middletown, Rumson and Atlantic Highlands, also organize “open play” a few times a week. This is coordinated by Kim Smith, Monmouth County Pickleball Ambassador, so different towns schedule at different times and don’t overlap.
At the meeting, Michael Reiser, Senior Design Engineer for CME Associates, presented the proposed improvements to East Side Park. Reiser gave a detailed account of the proposed upgrades, which include resurfacing of the existing basketball court and full reconstruction of the tennis court, including replacement of the curb edge and fencing.
In addition, improvements to the tennis court include conversion of the two existing tennis courts into hybrid tennis/pickleball courts.
According to Salinas the parks and recreation committee recently renovated the softball field and added a new facility, which included two restrooms. As for the timeline on the project, the construction is expected to begin this spring and the park is expected to be ready for public use by May.
“The engineer is mak- ing a couple changes (to the plan) and he’s going to have it finalized within a few days,” Salinas said. “And then it’s going to be uploaded into our website for anybody to view.”
The article originally appeared in the February 9 – 15, 2023 print edition of The Two River Times.
