Jim Donaldson is advocating for the return of four tennis courts at the Tillsonburg Community Center and the introduction of four new pickleball courts.
Pickleball is the fastest growing sports in North America, said Donaldson, during a presentation to Tillsonburg council on Jan. 9.
“They are not as big as a tennis court but you can put four of them together and you can have a nice beginning situation.”
Donaldson would like to see the town and local service clubs get involved in revitalizing the tennis courts and programs and taking advantage of the popularity of pickleball.
“In the 1970s, we had the new complex (Tillsonburg Community Centre), the tennis courts, the water park (Lake Lisgar Water Park) came a little later, and it was a progressive thing,” said Donaldson.
“We were doing a lot of different things within the community with our service clubs,” he said, recalling a time when there were 13 service clubs on town entrance signs. “That’s a lot of volunteer work.”
Donaldson recalled the growth of the local tennis club, with a volunteer executive, which at one point had active players in an inter-urban league, a youth program, and men’s and women’s leagues. And a dominant high school program.
“We focused on the youth,” said Donaldson, noting that led to three Ontario Tennis Association junior development awards.
Over time, six primary courts at the community center were in use. Two courts, near Lake Lisgar, were later discontinued.
“We were very concerned that the courts were getting into trouble. The lines were going, there were cracks. The repairs didn’t happen very often. They tried to patch it, and in a sense we lost the use of the tennis courts. I couldn’t hold an OTA tournament – and we used to hold lots of them – and as a result we were concerned that they weren’t being looked after enough.”
In a new recreation plan, three courts were removed, said Donaldson.
“That left us with three courts and as a result you can’t run tournaments. You need four tennis courts, minimum. Without tournaments, the membership suffered and it became a difficult situation.
“We have to be careful when we create something that we maintain it. And my concern is that we were not keeping up,” he said, noting that concern extended to the all-weather track at Annandale Public School, known as the Tillsonburg Legion Track, which was a world class facility in the 1970s and 80s, but has had limited use in the last decade.
Councilor Kelly Spencer asked Donaldson about the feasibility of adding pickleball lines to the tennis courts, which will be resurfaced (allocated in the proposed 2023 budget).
Donaldson said it has been tried in the past, but the chemicals involved in lining pickleball courts damaged the surface.
“The chemical they sprayed on… all along that it opened up, a chemical reaction. It’s not a good idea, you don’t see it too often. In our view, it shouldn’t have been done.”
“I’m wondering if we can research about different surfaces that they have now,” said Spencer, “and I’m just wondering that if we were to build another court, to have four, if they could be both and work for everybody – the pickleball and tennis court people?”
Councilor Pete Luciani agreed, suggesting that if the town did install four new pickleball courts it would still be advantageous to investigate, potentially allowing eight pickleball courts for tournaments.
Council directed staff to investigate the feasibility of multi-use courts, and provide costs to create a fourth court. The item will also be referred to the Recreation and Sports Advisory Committee for initial consideration.