As a resident of Oak Park for 17 years, I was very excited when the Barrie Park Sport Courts installed new pickleball courts. The popularity of the sport is soaring and it brought in people from all over the village to meet and play.
A short two years later, the courts are in shambles. The mats are crudely laid out with bumps and ripples just waiting for someone to trip on and cause injury. Out of the six courts, only two are playable and that is a kind estimate that an experienced pickleballer might argue.
When I inquired to the Park District of Oak Park about when the courts would be repaired, I received prompt, detailed responses. I was told the water underneath the courts was ruining the mats and they were trying to repair them.
Well now we are at the end of the summer and the courts have not been touched. While the response letters were kind, if not too wordy, the verbiage did not fix the underlying problem. The courts are empty pretty much all day; even the basketball courts had a slow summer.
When we moved in, there were two tennis courts that used a plastic grid type mesh over the concrete. We were told this was a special substrate to avoid water issues from the pumping station. Did the park district not remember this?
The tennis courts lasted over 13 years in great shape while the pickleball courts barely lasted two. Even the front of the Barrie Park Community Center is overgrown with weeds and looks very unkept, and the tot playground remodel was underwhelming.
We need to address the shortcomings and underlying issues to get Barrie Park fully operational and beautiful again. Words backed with no action are not going to cut it. Please look back at the material used for the tennis courts, it was chosen for the exact problem we are facing today.
Michael Gerou
Oak Park