Trustees Hear Pitch for New Noise-Cancelling Pickleball Equipment

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.