The City of Evanston will begin the reconstruction of 14 tennis courts at James Park, the Robert Crown Community Center, Burnham Shores, and Bent Park the week of April 24. Construction will last around 25 days at each location. Half of the courts (three of six) at James Park and both courts (two) at Bent Park will feature blended lines for both tennis and pickleball.

Attend the Parks & Rec Open Forum Tonight, March 16, and Email Evanston City Council Members This Week!

If you are an Evanston resident, please READ AND ACT.

We have two major opportunities left to influence the city’s upcoming decision regarding the Spring 2023 resurfacing of four Evanston tennis court locations. 1) By attending Parks & Rec’s final open forum tonight and 2) By emailing City Council members.

At present, only Bent Park, Burnham Shores, Robert Crown, and James Park are being considered for resurfacing and converting to pickleball-only based on the city’s proposed budget. Once this resurfacing/conversation takes place, it will not be undone for years to come, if ever, due to the associated costs.

1. Evanston Parks and Recreation’s final open forum on this topic will take place tonight, March 16, at 6 p.m., at the Evanston Ecology Center. Following this final open forum—at which members of the Evanston community will be allowed to briefly address the board—Parks & Rec will vote on this issue. Their final recommendation will then go to the Evanston City Council for approval. (This makes item #2 in this email all the more important.)

At a previous invite-only meeting for members of the tennis and pickleball community, players in attendance voted (informally) to convert both (2) courts at Bent Park, no courts (0) at Burnham Shores, two (2) courts at Robert Crown, and one (1) court at James Park to pickleball-only.

One (1) tennis court = three (3) pickleball courts, per Parks & Rec’s proposed plans. If the Parks & Rec board decides to vote along the above lines, it would result in a total of 15 pickleball-only courts and 9 tennis-only (no dual lines) courts—two (2) at Burnham Shores, two (2) at Robert Crown, and five (5) at James Park.

Local tennis leagues/teams need at least one location in Evanston with five (playable) tennis courts: James is the only option right now, as Lovelace is largely unavailable due to the city’s tennis program.

As you know, Robert Crown is the only one of the above locations that offers lights for nighttime play. Residents living in that area have been complaining to Parks & Rec as well as the city about the increased noise level that adding more pickleball courts would create. Tennis players also would be affected by the fact that as many as 12 pickleball players could be playing next to them at one time, if the above vote is ratified.

Parks & Rec has received more than 150 emails from Evanston tennis and pickleball players with various opinions. Members of the pickleball community have been especially vocal. Don’t let someone else speak for you! If you have not expressed your opinion via a recent Parks & Rec meeting or in an email to Parks & Rec Director Audrey Thompson (athompson@cityofevanston.org), please try to attend the open forum tonight.

THERE IS MORE YOU CAN AND SHOULD STILL DO.

2. Both Parks & Rec and ECTA highly recommend that you email Evanston aldermen/the City Council with your concerns and opinions. Specifically, if you believe the city should put additional funds toward building stand-alone pickleball courts instead of converting precious Evanston tennis courts to pickleball-only, please email the following council members ASAP this week!

ckelly@cityofevanston.org

kharris@cityofevanston.org

mwynne@cityofevanston.org

jnieuwsma@cityofevanston.org

bburns@cityofevanston.org

tsuffredin@cityofevanston.org

erevelle@cityofevanston.org

dreid@cityofevanston.org

jgeracaris@cityofevanston.org

athompson@cityofevanston.org

mcallahan@cityofevanston.org

darlenecannonfor2nd@gmail.com

maryrosinski@gmail.com

lstowe@cityofevanston.org

dbiss@cityofevanston.org

As we all know, many other Evanston courts are in need of resurfacing, but there is no timeline for those at this point, so whatever happens this spring is all we can count on this year.

Make your voice heard before it’s too late!

Thank you,
Evanston Community Tennis Association

Attention, ECTA members and friends!

Evanston Parks & Recreation will be holding an open forum during their board meeting this Thursday, February 16, (6 p.m. Evanston Ecology Center, 2024 N. McCormick) to hear from community members about converting certain tennis courts to pickleball-only courts this spring.

If you are interested in voicing your opinion about which/how many courts at Bent Park, Burnham Shores, Robert Crown, and James Park will be converted to pickleball only when those courts are resurfaced in April/May of this year, please attend this meeting! The last two meetings held by the city on this topic were last-minute (called by pickleball players) and invite-only (for both pickleball and tennis players), respectively—both meetings were attended largely by pickleball players. Members of the ECTA board attended both, but we cannot speak for everyone.

The tennis community needs to speak up.

A (non-final) vote taken of attendees at the last meeting resulted in a recommendation to completely convert both (2) courts at Bent Park to pickleball, 2 courts at Robert Crown to pickleball, and 1 court at James Park to pickleball. The vote was to make Burnham Shores tennis only.

While some people have suggested continuing to stripe some courts at each location for both tennis and pickleball, as the city was already doing, the vast majority of both pickleball and tennis players have requested dedicated courts for their mutual sports—this will make lines clearer to see for all and also give pickleball players more than one court on a standard tennis court, due to the smaller size of a pickleball court.

The city does not have the budget (or approved space) to build new pickleball courts at this time, so the only solution right now is to convert some tennis courts to pickleball only.

Please be aware that once this decision is made by the city, it cannot easily be undone in the future due to the expense of conversation, which is more expensive and complicated than simply striping courts. It is TBD which other courts in Evanston may be resurfaced and converted to pickleball in the future.

Note that the courts mentioned above are the only ones in Evanston that will be resurfaced and considered for pickleball conversion at this time due to budgeting (these locations have been on the list for resurfacing for over a year due to poor court conditions).

Many of you may have emailed the new director of Parks & Rec, Audrey Thompson, with your thoughts on this issue earlier this year (she has received over 100 emails from both pickleball players and tennis players, to date). If you are unable to attend tomorrow night’s meeting, I recommend emailing Audrey (again, if it will be your second time) at athompson@cityofevanston.org to say that although you cannot be there this Thursday, you want your vote to count, and express your thoughts on the courts at Bent Park, Burnham Shores, Robert Crown, and James Park, specifically.

It should be noted that a forth and final open forum on this issue will be held in March by Parks & Rec, but a date for that meeting has not yet been set, so this week’s meeting remains critical.

Note: If you did not receive the official memo that Thompson sent out to pickleball and tennis players this week, feel free to email ECTA President Debbie Cassell at debbiecassell@yahoo.com, and she will forward you that memo.

Make your voice heard before it’s too late.

Thank you,
ECTA Board of Directors