Day: November 29, 2024

Local veterinarian, artist and Pickleball enthusiast Linda Downs gave a presentation to Town Trustees and Mayor Dave Roberts at the November 20 meeting, showing them noise-cancelling Pickleball equipment she recently discovered.     Pickleball is a sport that has been rapidly growing in popularity in America, with a bevy of seasonal visitors to Lake City frequenting Lake City’s Armory in droves to play during summer months, prompting noise complaints from nearby home owners.     With many of her fellow Pickleball enthusiasts in the audience, Downs spoke to the board, saying “in the summer of 2023, we’d play Pickleball right out here in the outside Armory court. We had a lovely time with the community, we’d play pretty much all day with different groups in and out and it became a problem with the neighbors and the noise. We wanted to come to a compromise because Pickleball does have a history of making some percussive noise. A lot of communities have struggled with this. So we started to think, how do we keep our neighbors happy but still be able to play?”    Downs went on to report that Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the world and very friendly to multiple skill levels. “It’s very family-friendly,” Downs said, “we have an 11-year-old who plays with his parents, we have a 16-year-old we’ve watched grow up from a 14-year-old with a lot of mentorship in her life from the Pickleball players, we have a lot of summer residents that we never would have met without Pickleball. Not only is it a physically healthy thing, but also there is a culture in Pickleball where you can go anyplace and play with anybody. We will have random tourists show up and we immediately embrace them and they join us. For tourism, Pickleball is a great thing.  I think the most important thing for me is that we are a town that has a built-in generational movement and we’re trying to build community and I would like us, as a community, to find a compromise so that we can keep the neighbors happy and so that we can still keep Pickleball going.”    Downs went on to say that when they first started playing Pickleball, the group was not yet aware that there were “quiet technology” equipment options, along with other noise-cancelling ideas – fencing around the courts, alterations to the playing surface of the courts, new courts in Memorial Park – that the Pickleball group will eventually incorporate. “But in the short term,” Downs said, “we have learned from the USA Pickleball Association that we have new equipment options.”     Fellow Pickleball enthusiast Rich Landry emerged from the audience to hand Downs one of these new rackets, and alongside the previously-used rackets, gave a demonstration of each with various types of balls – the original ball making the most amount of noise, a ball in between hard and soft and the new, softer type of ball, which when used with the noise-cancelling rackets emit virtually no sound at all.     While the new Pickleball paddles and balls are slightly more expensive that the originals, Downs also demonstrated an older paddle with sticky felt applied to it, that she said cost about 75 cents but does slightly affect the playability of the paddle.     “To me,” Downs said, “this is an easy compromise to say to the neighbor, we hear you, we respect you, but we also respect the hundreds of people who come in from out of town in the summer looking for a Pickleball game.”    After Downs concluded her presentation, trustees thanked her for her determination in reasearching solutions, as well the understanding of all the Lake City Pickleball players that a problem existed, and that they made the effort to try and find a compromise and solution to the matter. 

Kate Hopson’s resignation as Executive Director and Events Coordinator later this year leaves an immense void and big shoes to fill at Lake City/Hinsdale County Chamber of Commerce.    In her resignation letter to chamber of commerce board members dated November 13, Hobson states her nearly four years at the helm coordinating a succession of special events and administration work which has seen a 55 percent increase in chamber membership over the past two years has been “a significant and meaningful chapter in my life, and I am so proud of everything we’ve accomplished together.”    Hopson will continue with the chamber through the end of the year, overseeing the upcoming chamber membership drive and special events such as next weekend’s annual Christmas in Lake City.    As chamber directors seek a replacement with deadline Sunday, December 15, the board may decide to modify the impressive array of duties which Hobson wielded since she was hired in April, 2022.    Principal duties as Executive Director are administrative and coordinating operations at the chamber’s Lake City visitors’ center, as well as overseeing the sizeable number of chamber-sponsored special events.    Chamber President Jacqui Wonnacott says she remains “basically in denial” after Hopson’s announced resignation, she and her fellow board members crediting the departing Executive Director for “enormous changes for the positive” which Hopson has accomplished.    Wonnacott credits Hopson for bringing the chamber into the positive financially in its sponsorship of special events, increasing pages in the visitors’ guide with this year’s salute to Hinsdale County’s 150th Anniversary, and streamlining operations at the visitors’ center.    “Financially,” says Wonnacott, “we’ve never been in better position.”    “Obviously, we want to wish Kate only the very best,” Wonnacott continues, “and I want to extend my personal thanks to Kate for her service not only to the chamber of commerce but to the community at large.”    “She filled a huge gap in the community and seamlessly tied so many things together.”    In addition to pledging a smooth transition through at least the end of the year, and working to insure “the next person in my role has all the support they need to succeed,” Hopson assures the chamber she has no plans to exit the community.    On the contrary, she continues as a three-year board member of Downtown Improvement & Revitalization Team and remains as a member of the Lake City/Hinsdale County Marketing Committee.    Even prior to her work as the Chamber’s Executive Director, Hobson’s graphic design company, Wildpeak Design, was assisting the Marketing Committee with innovative design and marketing strategies.    A San Antonio, Texas, native, she moved to Lake City in 2018. She tells SILVER WORLD she had no intent to leave the Executive Director position until earlier this fall “when I was offered a position I couldn’t refuse.”    After being contacted with the job offer, considerable thought and soul-searching ensued, she says, “it’s been one of the hardest decisions I’ve ever had to make.”    Asked about her future career path, she says effective December 2 she has been hired as marketing manager for a multi-state  cannabis operator.    Hobson says superlatives in her years with the chamber has included solidifying the chamber center as an “information hub for the community” with the focus  of making sure locals and visitors “stay informed, know what’s going on, and jive together.”    Working with Sarah DeCristino, Hopson transformed the little-used back room of the chamber into an innovative education center.    In terms of special events, the departing Executive Director says she is especially pleased with the success of Oktoberfest which this year “finally tipped the scale from being a purely local event to a celebration which people travel to Lake City to attend.”    Also high on Hopson’s list is the chamber’s annual sponsorship of the July 4 festivities, noting the “insane amount of work” is easily outweighed by the “satisfaction of knowing so many people have such great fun.”    Hopson is quick to acknowledge that for all the chamber’s success with special events, “none of it would be possible without the huge team of volunteers.”