Ball hockey, street soccer and lacrosse top choices for rejigging Niagara-on-the-Lake’s pickleball courts | NiagaraFallsReview.ca

2022-09-24 03:23:39 By : Mr. Tom Zhang

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Work continues on figuring out the future of pickleball in Niagara-on-the-Lake after the town’s battle in the courts over a noise complaint. Now, they’ve narrowed it down to three possibilities for repurposing the off-limits pickleball courts in Virgil.

Council briefly discussed a report from town staff during its Aug. 29 meeting, the report recommending the courts at the Virgil Sports Park be turned into a venue for either ball hockey, street soccer or lacrosse.

All three of these options would mean a cost of $1,500 each to modify the current courts.

Staff came to these three options by evaluating costs to modify the courts for eight different activities, also including an outdoor fitness space, spec tennis, corn hole, basketball and volleyball.

They also looked at how well the eight options would “fit” the space based on the efficiency of the current space, how much they anticipate it would be used, how difficult it would be to change and potential noise concerns.

At the bottom of its “does it fit” list was spec tennis: despite requiring no cost, staff wrote in its report that it carries a risk of potentially breaching the probation order placed by the court after they were convicted in June.

Part of the noise bylaw conviction, in which they were fined $1,000, includes a two-year probation on violating the bylaw, applied only to playing pickleball at the Virgil Sports Park. The town closed the courts in April when the charges were first laid.

There was one other option available: to dampen the noise at the pickleball court, the town had the option of installing a “sound attenuation” acoustic barrier around the court, for $75,000.

However, interim director of operations Kevin Turcotte said they would still need to invest in an enclosure to contain the barriers, and that the noise wouldn’t be completely gone, and would travel around the barrier.

As for where the town’s Pickleball Club will play their games for the time being, the indoor courts at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Community Centre closed the week of Aug. 22: they were set up in the centre’s ice rink, which the town is now busy filling with ice for the fall and winter seasons.

“Right now we don’t have a home for outdoor pickleball until we do some more due diligence on where we might locate that in the future,” said Turcotte during the meeting.

The town had looked into other options like the Virgil Public School, Vineridge Academy and the Croatian National Centre: staff reported back in July that of the three, the old Virgil school could be a viable option.

Going forward on this project, chief administrative officer Marnie Cluckie said they will still need council's recommendations before finalizing any plans.

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