Public Hearing on Building Pickleball Courts in Howard County - The public hearing will be held in a week at the Recreation and Parks headquarters at 7120 Oakland Mills Road, Columbia on Wednesday, October 16th at 7 pm. We would like as many members to attend either wearing their pickleball shirts or carrying their paddles. We do anticipate some opposition to some of these proposals. It would be nice if we had more numbers showing greater interest in building more pickleball courts. Please provide your address when you sign-in so they know you are within Howard County. If you are able to attend, please use the following link to access the doodle we put together so we have an idea of how many folks will be attending.
Registration for HCR&P Public Hearing
Howard County Recreation & Parks will not be able to accept testimony via email. If any citizens would like to sign up to either speak at the hearing or provide online testimony if they cannot attend, they can use the links listed below. Citizens are reminded that internet testimony is considered public information and is subject to the Maryland Public Information Act. Citizens who do not wish to sign up online, will still be able to sign up in person at the public hearing beginning at 6:30 PM on the night of the hearing.
Recreation and Parks Advisory Board - https://www.howardcountymd.gov/advisoryboard
Online Testimony - https://apps.howardcountymd.gov/E_RAPTestimony/
Use of Owen Brown Tennis Club Pickleball Courts - I have received several questions on why we aren't using the OBTC Pickleball courts. The contractor working on the lights is still at it and CA's Tennis and Pickleball staff are not sure when they will be finished. We have been requested by Sonny Tannan, the CA Pickleball Coach, not to use the PB courts until further notice. We are hoping they will complete the task by the end of the month but we can't count on it.
Wednesday Evening Drop-in Session for Oct. - we have received a small number of folks interested in playing late in the afternoon on Wednesday. Stephanie Lauer will be bringing the nets to the courts behind the Oakland Mills Ice Rink starting next Wed., 10/15 around 4 pm. She will setup one net and if enough people show up, additional nets can be setup later. The session will go till 6 pm or when it gets too dark to play. If there is a question on the weather, check the top of the home page on our website.
Winter Drop-in Session on Saturday Morning - we had enough people showing interest in playing at the Lake Elkhorn gym and cafeterias from January through March. I have put in a request for that gym and I'm waiting to hear if we can use it or not. It will likely be sometime in Dec. before I learn if this is possible. Once I find out we will setup up the means to register to play as well as a substitute system. Stay tuned.
Informal Individual Tournament Planned for Nov. 9th - Our association will be sponsoring an event on Saturday November 9th at two different venues- The event will be a random draw doubles event with entrants individually signing up for either advanced or intermediate play. The venue for each has yet to be determined. You will switch partners for each round. Play will start at 10.00 am with the nets to be set up at 9:30 and check in is also at 9:30 am.
Steve Orr:
Joe Beitz: