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On Lewes Canalfront Park proposal and use of courts 

January 31, 2020

The following letter was sent to City of Lewes officials, with a copy submitted to the Cape Gazette.

I attended the parks and recreation commission’s workshop meeting and it was the first that I understood the details of the proposals being made. I am still unsure about how these proposals developed.

The following are facts and issues I respectfully request that commission consider before approving any plans.

• Please solve the real issue. If we don’t solve the problem of shared courts by both sports and the FSPCI, then we haven’t solved the problem. Tennis players will still have no court to play on during prime times.  I think separating the two venues is an easy way for the city to preclude the misuse of pickleball courts (if they can’t take over the tennis courts then they cannot have large organizational play here without permission) and to preserve playing space for both sports (for equal numbers of players) and to end this conflict.

• I am happy people are passionate about pickleball and want to grow the sport, but that does not put them above the law and above others in the community. I really love to play tennis at the pretty Ccnalfront courts. This is because they are serene and beautiful. For the last five years I have felt precluded from the use of facilities that I help to pay for and maintain, and now I see the city has asked the organizers (i.e. Ann Reed, etc.) of FSPCI, which has been using our resource without the color of law, to help them to formulate a plan to transform the park.  FSPCI is deceitful and militant, in my opinion, and I am appalled that you would include them in this process.  Ann and the FSPCI  pretend it is not doing what it is doing, and they have insulted and used the City of Lewes and its citizens and friends for years. They do not have our city’s best interest in mind.

• If this is allowed to continue, then I request that an identical type of tennis club be allowed to advertise and use the courts at regular times and give free lessons (do you see what a slippery slope this can be?).  If you did so, you would see the tennis traffic pick up significantly on the courts, especially if we did it at the best time of the day (I bet we could even surpass the pickleballers if we had enough courts). Perhaps a basketball club as well.

I am irked because, as far as I know, the city has done nothing to enforce its regulations for the good of the whole community with regard to this large organization, and that is part of what has caused this purported problem. FYI: Tennis players have organized round robin type playing at regular times (usually just once a week) at various tennis courts in communities around the area. They are organized by community members with the permission of the community and with various rules about outside players.  Pickleballers could and can do the same thing.  Of course they would have to get permission from the communities they live in and everything.

• The tactic of pitting pickleball against tennis is really distasteful and unproductive. I am irked because one of this organization’s antecdotal arguments is that they never see tennis players at the courts, which fact is totally influenced by the fact that all or most prime times for playing on the courts (i.e. mornings and late afternoons) are occupied by an unpermitted pickleball club with members from far and wide who are zealously trying to grow their sport according to methods prescribed on their website. Should tennis players employ the same tactics?  At the same time (or just prior to the pickleball craze) the city shut down legitimate and forthright attempts to promote tennis on the courts. 

• Ann Reed of the FSPCI statements in the Gazette letter about how many hours her organization utilizes the tennis courts in Lewes are incongruent, at best, with the ads she puts on the places2play tab of FSPCI site and another attempt to obfuscate the facts.  Lewes listings on their website are by far the boldest and most arrogant advertisements about the use of public facilities at scheduled times of all of the listings on FSPCI’s site. Probably because no one from Lewes does anything about it.

Ann never identifies the FSPCI in her op-ed but she admits she plays here regularly here with an organization. FSPCI is smart enough to incorporate and get insurance waivers for nonmembers but not smart enouigh to learn the laws pertaining to the use of public facilities by organizations in Lewes? (I think not).  Have you told them?

• I am amused that they want bleachers (of course they do - for their unpermitted events so people can cheer them on - who cares about the pretty canal).  The average local tennis or pickleball player doesn’t need bleachers.  Why waste the money?

• The present situation and proposed plans are unsafe. 

FSPCI members are often rude.

They are so militant about their cause that I have been on the courts and an elder leader who was giving free pickleball lessons would not move to the center pickleball court even though the ball kept coming over into the tennis court to the danger of the tennis player.  (She said the tennis net in the center court was too high - well, I guess then who cares about a tennis player’s safety?)   

• I believe that if you took away the FSPCI unpermitted use of the courts we would not have any problem. Two permanent pickleball courts would be sufficient for local recreational players and they do not have to be in Canalfront Park if they do not fit there.  Two tennis courts are already there (let’s dedicate them to tennis and safety). 

This provides playing opportunities for an equal amount of players from each sport without conflict with the other sport.  BTW, tennis is still an extremely popular and growing sport. I also note that tennis players seem to be a lot more accommodating and tolerant of others’ rights to play their chosen sport.

• Imagine how much money we would have for everyone if the FSPCI had charged $5 to each member every time they played in Lewes over the last five years like private clubs do and had given it to the city.  I had to pay a lot more then that to play elsewhere when the FSPCI had the courts to  my exclusion.

• I think that laid-back tennis players didn’t realize what the FSPCI was doing (because the FSPCI doesn’t disclose it to anyone). (FYI, they put banners up at other venues when they are allowed to be there and they have private sponsors pay their club to advertise on their banners.) Or else tennis players felt so overwhelmed by FSPCI’s presence they succumbed. Perhaps everyone thought someone else was doing something about it or would.  I, for one, knew that they had a secret organization but was surprised at the extent and arrogance of it when I researched it after the  meeting. I guess the card table with sign-in sheets and the women from Milford signing people in that I saw last summer when there were at least a hundred pickleball players there should have been a hint. (I figured the city knew about that.)

• In my opinion, any plan the city has for the canal should be in scale and ambiance of the surrounding park and its purpose.  As far as I know it is  not meant for large organizations to gather their club members for competitions and socials without permission - it is meant for the average Joe or Jane who is visiting or close by to go downtown and play tennis or pickleball or basketball with family and friends.  

• Finally, I hope the next planning meeting will not be diverted into tennis against pickleball but will be devoted to formulating a smart plan that solves the real issues at hand.  No one is against pickleball.  The proposed plan makes a bad situation worse.

Lisa M. Andersen
Lewes

 

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