Raising a racket: Neighbors, players rally over Rideout pickleball options

Recreation Commission member Pete Funkhouser wanted to hear for himself how loud pickleball is. 

At the Rideout Park courts, he listened as players started a game.

“Oh, yeah,” he told a Acton Bridge reporter while they rallied. “It’s noisy.” 

Funkhouser’s visit came three weeks after a public forum and two days before a Rec Commission meeting where the panel discussed plans for West Acton’s only public tennis and pickleball courts. 

Officials expect to resurface the deteriorating facility. They haven’t decided whether they’ll reline it for pickleball, or for pickleball and tennis, but players — and park neighbors — are weighing in.

Aging courts

Pickleball is like tennis, but with a smaller court and a plastic ball. People of all ages play, but it’s a favorite among seniors.

Rideout’s current courts are roughly 20 years old. Six pickleball courts overlap with three tennis courts.

Officials also plan to resurface courts at Emerson Field in Acton Center, but Rec Commission Chair Phil Griffiths said Rideout is in worse shape and should go first. 

One scenario would retain the overlapping lines. Another would replace tennis with eight full-time pickleball courts. A third would put six pickleball courts alongside a single tennis court. 

The commission will choose from the three configurations next month, and there’s seemingly no shortage of opinions on how they should play it. 

Some point to Acton’s stock of at least 11 tennis courts around Acton Center and say tennis players should bow out of Rideout.

Vanessa Sedo was among those pushing back on that idea during the forum. “I really don’t want to see tennis eradicated in West Acton,” she said.

Some also worry that leaving just one tennis court would effectively erase the game, because players wouldn’t risk driving to Rideout only to find the lone court in use.

Pickleballer Chuck Slagen said he’s “sick and tired” of wrangling portable nets, and wouldn’t have to if the town went with dedicated courts.

Irl Smith once played tennis and said pickleball was a welcome alternative as he aged and his knees became “less forgiving.”

“Acton is getting older,” he told The Bridge. “[H]aving pickleball with an active presence by the Rec Department would be in everybody’s best interest.”

Pickleball has sparked debate — and even litigation — with neighbors of courts in other communities raising noise complaints.

Jean Easterday’s Maple Street property is little more than a racquet swing from the Rideout courts. She worries about increased pickleball play if officials choose dedicated courts, and wishes the discussion were more transparent. 

“If you’re going to put pickleball in somebody’s backyard, they’re going to want to have an input on it,” she told The Bridge. 

Neighbor concerns

Easterday gathered more than 40 petition signatures from Rideout neighbors asking the town to preserve the current configuration after resurfacing. 

She said removing tennis would undercut Rideout’s identity as a multiuse park.

A 2024 town strategic plan said Acton should add at least six dedicated outdoor pickleball courts “preferably separate from Rideout.” Residents raised this and Griffiths responded, saying officials aren’t contradicting that plan because Rideout is an existing facility that people already use “very heavily” for pickleball.

At this month’s Rec Commission meeting, resident Cynthia Katz called it “a slap in the face” that West Acton and Rideout “seem to be the dumping ground for everything that Acton Center doesn’t really want to adopt.”

The town has some money for resurfacing, which also covers Rideout’s basketball courts. Consultants estimate the makeover could cost anywhere from $500,000 to nearly $1 million. Staff hope to have crews start resurfacing next summer. 

Whatever layout the Rec Commission picks, Griffiths acknowledged it probably won’t satisfy everyone. 

“We would love to have a plethora of resources within walking distance of everybody in town,” he said. “It’s not realistic.”