City Council - Regular Meeting

Thank you.

Thanks.

All right, everyone, we'll get started here in just a moment.

All right, I have 6.01 p.m. for Tuesday, May 26th. I'm going to go ahead and call our meeting to order here. All council members are present. Please quiet down and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, thank you. We have some announcements and committee reports to kick us off here this evening. First of all, we have started work on our combined sewer overflow project today. Right-of-way clearing began, which included taking down some trees that are sitting directly atop the project site. That's at 4th Street near T Avenue. The project is expected to be complete in November, and new trees will be planted when the project is complete. More information, as always, at anacorteswa.gov slash projects. The Fourth of July Parade is coming up quickly. We want to remind everyone that registration is required for all participant groups. Go to anacorteswa.gov slash fourth, sign up. Please make sure that you do that prior to the event. senior Center has a couple of activities they'd like us to highlight first of all there's a hearing loss consultation, it is free Friday may 29 starting at 9am registration is required, and you can find out more information about that on the senior centers webpage. they've also got a veterans hangout event which. is pretty self-explanatory. Friday, May 29th at 10 a.m., also at the Senior Center. No registration required. Kids Fishing Day is coming up May 30th at Heart Lake. Starts at 7 a.m., ages 14 and under. And the Parks Department is running that. You can find more information on their webpage. And Bark in the Park is Saturday, June 13th, 10 a.m. at Storvik Park. Council, you have some committee reports this evening. Let's start with personnel.

Mayor Walter. Mr. Fantini. Do you have your notes? I don't know. Sorry, my computer just did a little mandatory restart, and I don't have it.

We could start with Parks and Recreation, which is actually alphabetically the first one.

Perfect. Those I do have.

Parks and Recreation.

No, I was missing it. Are you back up and running? I got those. Yeah. Okay. Sorry.

Mr. Fantini.

Thank you. Ping pong, not pickleball. So the Parks and Committee met on 5-21-26. It was council members, Ms. Hunt, myself, Mr. Young, as well as Parks Director John Lunsford, Dustin South, and Nicole Johnston. We did have a little bit discussion around the Pickleball Court, which I know is on the agenda tonight, so I'll just save all of that for that. We did get a report about the Skagit Council on Aging. I know we've all heard a lot about the Meals on Wheels program that's being discontinued through the county as of July, but that is going to be picked up by the Skagit Council on Aging And that's going to be continued service through 2026. So they do not currently have an ongoing model set yet for 2027, but they're working towards that. But we do have a solution at least to get us through to 2026. We also talked a little bit about the e-bike policy that came up that's in the parks, that is in the forest plan. We talked about, we got an update on the volunteer field grant. This is the grant to resurface some of volunteer field for lacrosse and soccer with artificial turf. So that is submitted. However, there were a record number of applicants for that grant, so we will all just cross our fingers and hope that we have some good luck there. Also, the grant that was presented to the Recreation Conservation Office, that's a state granting agency, that's to find and fix up the last of what is happening down at Ship Harbor. Those have also been submitted, and we hope to get updates back on that soon. And finally, the skate park restroom contract should be coming to us fairly soon. Thank you. Unless Mr. Young or Ms. Hunt had anything to add.

In case you missed it, the Star Trek Park Spay Pad is open for the season.

Would you like to take personnel next? Are you ready for personnel?

Mayor Walters.

Ms. Moulton, do you have personnel?

Yes. I feel the long weekend having its effect. So the personnel committee met Tuesday, May 19th, and it was Council Members Currier, Fantini, myself, and our HR Director, Kendall Moyle. And it was great. This was only my second personnel committee meeting. And every time I go, I learn so much from Ms. Moyle. And it's just been really it's just been super interesting. So the recruiting update in the month of April, we hired nine people, mostly firefighter paramedics and some seasonal maintenance positions, as well as a new legal assistant. And we had two exits. And we talked about the wellness events that employees take part in. So there's a July Team Step Challenge. And then there's also an L&I on-site ergonomic desk space consultation to make sure. We've all heard a lot over the last few years about sitting and standing and moving. And so there's an L&I on-site. ergonomic desk look at and chairs and stuff too, which is great. And then there's an August summer pet photo contest for staff, which apparently is a really big hit. And council members are also welcome to submit photos if they'd like. We moved on to police and fire promotional testing, and that went really well, and we learned about how intensive those tests are for both firefighter, paramedics, and police officers, and especially for police officers, as you can imagine, because they have guns, and they are very... They take... They take lie detector tests, and they have to tell everything like if they if if they stole a pack of gum at Walgreens, for example, they're gonna say it's very, very intensive. Those tests were successful. Those are completed. And then we reviewed the benefit plan offerings for staff. And also we're reminded that council members do qualify for health insurance if a majority of council members sign on to the plan. So that's being explored if there are four of us that would like to take part in that. But that was great to learn about too. And I know I'm forgetting some things, but that is the basic gist of it.

All right. Thank you. And finally, the Public Safety Committee.

Mayor Walters?

Ms. Hunt.

So council members Moulton, Cleveland McGrath, and me met with Police Chief Dave Floyd and Parks and Recreation Director John Lunsford last Tuesday. Interim Fire Chief McDonnell was away at a conference last week. So we used this meeting to concentrate a work session on roughing out elements of the new e-bike code that will be coming before council sooner rather than later. firefighter emt tristan lucas was in attendance and so we were able to get his input valuable input regarding ems response to cycling accidents in town where those tend to happen what the big risk factors are so that was very useful because our goal in crafting this legislation is all about increasing safety on our streets and trails particularly for our young people We reconvened on Friday for us a little bit of follow-up and I understand that now Chief Floyd will be working with the legal team to turn all of our suggestions and thoughts into something resembling an ordinance that we can bring back to full counsel and to the public for around a public comment Heads up the unanimously recommended a helmet requirement for everyone under 18. So if you have strong feelings about that one way or the other, be prepared to join in that conversation. That's all I have unless anybody else wants to add.

All right, thank you. Mr. Gattel.

Thank you. I wanted to give a quick update on the Economic Development Committee. We had a meeting this morning just to follow up on the efforts to get the letters for the FIFA tournament that's taking place. And so part of this installation out at the ferry terminal, and part of that is to create an opportunity for the 2 million people going through to recognize what we have in the Anacortes. And just some wonderful stuff that's starting to take place. And so what we did was we had a meeting just to follow up because our goal is to get it up in full display by June 1st. So part of that was to make sure that the pieces are folding together. There are so many parts to it. The port has got all the letters now. the chamber in the QR codes to make sure that it leads back to Anacortes and Magic Skagit and all the stuff that's happening here. And then even beyond that, there are Magic Skagit, which is a promotion of Skagit within itself chamber. Of course, it was Miss Cleland McGrath and myself, as well as part of those ad hoc members. It was kind of a last minute sprint. But again, the goal is to get the lettering up before the tournament start. And even though we're not sure if we're going to have much of them coming through, but it's a great way to do what we do. And so this was the partnership for tourism promotion with the FIFA Cup and Skagit Valley. So Skagit Valley Tourism Promotion Director Christian Kels got us the letters. And of course, Chamber of Commerce Director Jessica Kaiser was creation of informal plaque to be on display with the letters of Anacortes, the Port of Anacortes. Christy Sutherland update today was that the port is waiting for just one or two more pieces. It's moving forward. The Anacortes Arts Festival director Meredith McEmore oversaw the art selection and wrapping of the letters. And with the O being the ball, it is going to be a spectacular thing. And so our hope is that of those people going to the San Juan Islands, some may choose to walk on the ferry and come back and shop downtown, eat downtown, have a cocktail of your choice downtown, and attend some events. So it was a wonderful thing. And as a byproduct to that, I want to thank... My colleague over here, Ms. Moulton, for Priming the Pump, I had an informal brainstorming meeting on today with the CEO of Skagit Transit. And part of the reason for that is eventually the hope, or at least the idea, is that at some point Skagit Transit minibuses would sort of trace the city commercial or go through, swing by the port and during the summer months, pick up people that may want to just walk on the ferry from the other islands and not have to drive back and pay those additional costs. So it's a wonderful thing that's promoting everything that we are. And the initial response as we were brainstorming and none of the details worked out how it's going to be funded, but just the idea of the possibility went over well, and she was ecstatic and very supportive. You know, as we go forward, and that's the Economic Development Committee, as well as all our partners and stakeholders, as well as the city and tribes, we'll try to come together to figure out how it might work for us and be to the benefit of our city. But it's a positive thing, and I hope that as we, the letters, are installed that as many of you would go out and take pictures and post and um and tag the city as well so that everybody can know what a wonderful city we have in our efforts in order to bring things forward thank you thank you council any other announcements

Mayor Walters.

Ms. Colleen McGrath.

Yeah, I just wanted to give a few notes about the North Star Symposium that was last Thursday, May 21st. Where am I looking here? So we had a great representation. Councilmember Currier, Councilmember Moulton, Mr. Walters were all there from the elected body from Anacortes. We also had Coleman Snyder, Coleman and Snyder from, uh, the planning department and then, uh, Captain Fuller and then Steve Monrad, who's our, um, from our fire representation. Um, so this will happen at Swinomish Casino. It was an all day event. And so it was a real, we had a number of keynote speakers, um, that were talking about the North star program, which is in a, is a partnership between all of the cities of Skagit County. and the county itself to discuss and strategically plan and implement how we do a continuum of care for folks in Skagit County, whether it's social services, behavioral health services, housing intervention, things like that. So there were some keynote speakers that talked about systems. We had a What am I saying? Health folks that were doing about people and systems and the condition to recovery. We also had a really great keynote speaker in the afternoon, Christopher Polis, who talked about his experience being in homeless and on drugs and going to federal prison and then going and getting his... law degree after that and is working in the court system in both Maine and Washington State about how to get folks who are leaving the prison system to be well acclimated and successful outside once their things are once they're they have finished their sentence. Um, we also talked about, there were breakout sessions for folks, um, depending upon what their interests were, whether it was community-based systems of care, behavioral health strategies, how North starts working with both public private partnerships and service providers, and then also a lot about housing, um, why we're in such a challenge, um, and a shortage of housing in general. And then also, um, some of the projects that, uh, Volunteers of America are working on, Deagle Each is working on, and other partnerships that are happening across the community for either rental housing, permanently affordable housing, and then also home ownership. So it was a really great, long day. I suggest, encourage anyone who didn't make it this year to come. The public's also welcome to come. I think it's pretty informative. And if you have any further interest, you can always go to northstarscadget.org. And there's a lot of information about what's going on there, the speakers, some of the discussions. If you have questions, service providers. It's a pretty intricate program that the county has worked on for a number of years. And we've gotten a lot of recognition across the state about it. So something that we would all like the public to be more aware of. So yeah, take a look at it.

Thank you. Council, any other announcements? Hearing none, we'll move over to item four on our agenda, which is appointments. You have in front of your resolution 3218, confirming the appointment to the Planning Commission of Chad Sage. Mayor Walters. Ms. Hunt.

I move to approve resolution 3218, confirming the appointment of Chad Sage to the Planning Commission. Second.

Motion and a second to approve the resolution as presented. Any discussion? Hearing none, I'll call for the vote. The motion is to approve Resolution 3218, confirming Chad Sage's appointment to the Planning Commission. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say no. The ayes have it. The resolution is approved. Thank you. That brings us to public comment on the agenda. I do have a number of people signed up on the sign-in sheet for public comment, all of whom signed up indicating that you want to provide comment on Pickleball. We will take that on in just a moment. Is there anybody who wants to provide public comment on anything else? Yes. Come on up. Come to the podium. Provide us your name, the city you live in, and if it's Anacortes, your neighborhood, and you'll have three minutes.

Good evening, mayor and city council members. My name is Gina Peterson. I live in Anacortes in Ward 209. I urge the city to install rectangular rapid flashing beacon lights on three of the four crosswalks at the D Avenue and 32nd roundabout within two years. I live an 11 minute walk from that roundabout and use it regularly. The crosswalk on the west side of 32nd is safe. Pedestrians and drivers can see each other and drivers exit onto it safely. The crosswalks on the north, south, and east sides are the opposite. High speed drivers focusing closely on their right of way create significant danger for pedestrians. Installing crossing lights there will increase citizen safety and support the city's comprehensive plan goal of safety for the most vulnerable roadway users, including pedestrians, and reducing excessive speeding and other unsafe driving choices by using roundabouts and traffic calming devices. Other roundabouts in Anacortes with traffic calming crossing lights are Oaks and Glasgow Way, 32nd and M, and Sharps Corner. While there are no crossing lights at the roundabouts on R at 30th and 22nd, there are four sets of crossing lights on R between Highway 20 and 22nd, frequent reminders to watch for pedestrians. This leaves three roundabouts with no lights, Commercial and Highway 20 Spur, where there is so little foot traffic that the crossing marks are not maintained. Tercey Park, which is so small, it's more like a speed bump. And D and 32nd. The city must install rectangular, rapid flashing beacon lights at the three crosswalks on D and 32nd within two years. Doing this will not only increase citizen safety, it will support the city's goal of zero deaths and serious injury in its transportation system.

Thank you. Anyone else have a comment on anything other than pickleball?

No.

Okay, we'll go ahead and, well, Mr. Franciak, would you tell me if there's anybody online who has their hand up? No. Okay, then we will move on. Our next item is the consent agenda. Oh, and just as an FYI, I've sent a message to Public Works asking them to investigate the rabbit flashing beacons at D and 32nd. Our next item is the consent agenda. We have... Six items on the consent agenda. Council.

Mayor Walters.

Ms. Malton.

I move to approve consent agenda item 6A through F. Second.

A motion and a second to approve all the items on the consent agenda. No discussion is allowed on the consent agenda. Are there any requests to remove any items? Hearing none, we'll proceed to a vote on the motion. The motion is to approve all the items on the consent agenda. All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

All those opposed say no. The ayes have it, and the consent agenda is approved. Our next item is 7A, which is Resolution 3217, Adopting an Updated Public Participation Plan for the Periodic Update to the Charlene Master Program. Ms. Grage, I assume you're presenting this item since you're standing at the podium.

That would be correct. Thank you, Mayor.

I get some of them right.

City Council Chambers, Thank you, good evening everyone, and I am here to request City Council sorry City Council adoption of proposed resolution 3217 which would adopt an updated public participation plan for the SMP shoreline master program periodic update. Just as a brief reminder to everyone, the Shoreline Master Program, SMP, is the document that guides and regulates use and development of the city's shorelines. It contains goals and policies and a set of regulations. And the Shoreline Management Act is the state law that requires that the city have a Shoreline Master Program. It requires that the city update or review and update the Shoreline Master Program every 10 years to make sure that the plan remains consistent with updates to state law and to updates to local codes and plans that occur between or since the last periodic update. The city began this current periodic update process in 2019. The process included releasing two or three different drafts of the proposed updates to the plan, multiple public comment periods and public hearings, recommendation from the Planning Commission to City Council to adopt the periodic update. Subsequent to that, local adoption was delayed, and we are now reinitiating the SMP periodic update process that began in 2019. And since we've had some time that's gone by and we have seen some changes in state and local laws and people change and property ownership changes and staff is proposing that we have this updated public participation plan to guide the rest of the update process through adoption. This is just a map that shows where the Shoreline Master Program applies. It's along all of the marine shorelines of Anacortes and the lakes Cranberry Heart and Whistle Lake, a portion of Lake Erie. And the water and land ordinary excuse me all waters and the land within 200 feet of the ordinary high watermark along all of those shorelines. up. So just a brief history of the actual public participation plan, which is what we're here to talk about. The initial plan was released back in 2019 when we began this process. Recently, city staff proposed updates to the plan, brought those to the planning commission for a public hearing. We took public comment from members of the public, received some written comments, and ultimately the Planning Commission voted to recommend to the council adoption of the updated public participation plan with some changes and I've listed those changes out below when I won't read through those but staff has made the recommended changes to the draft that you have in your packet And finally, this is just an overview of the rest of the Shoreline Master Program periodic update process. And so we are here in May, June and requesting the resolution or adoption of the resolution for the updated public participation plan. um we plan to hold a an open house on the smp update on june 9th from 4 4 p.m to 6 p.m here in council chambers so hope to see you all there um and I think that you can see the rest of the schedule through the end of the year, which is the goal for completing local adoption of the SMP amendments. And the public participation plan is intended to show how the city will provide for public participation through the rest of the process. some information there about the city website. There's a SMP update project website that you can go to and find all of the documents that were previously released and reviewed and all of the public comments that have already been provided. And then as we move forward, future drafts of the SMP will be available on that website. You can sign up for emails to receive notifications when there are opportunities for public comment or drafts released. So just wanted to get that plug in there for everyone. And that's all I have for you. Are there any questions?

Council, any questions? Mayor Walters. Mr. Fantini.

I just wanted to appreciate, one, the Planning Commission and staff's role in what has happened. And also, I appreciate the fact that the public comments that were made kind of to this process here were addressed in what they're changing. So it's always nice when that happens. I know we're pretty much just procedural and talking about rules tonight, but I am kind of curious. So with the Ecology Department currently working on that rulemaking and sea level rise process, Has the planning department had any communication with Ecology about whether Anacortes' updated timeline and scope should account for those requirements?

We are in very close coordination with our shoreline planner with ecology and have had a couple of different discussions. And part of staff's upcoming work will be to update the gap analysis that was previously done for the update to identify any new changes to state law. that should be addressed within this upcoming SMP. So we don't have it totally identified everything that needs to be accounted for within this update, but we are working on that.

Great, thank you.

Council, any other questions?

Mayor Walters.

Mr. Currier.

um i don't have any more questions just think we should take it to the public so move to adopt resolution 3217 resolution adopting an updated public participation plan for the periodic update to the shoreline master program as presented second all right we have a motion a second to approve the resolution as presented any discussion or other questions all right

Let's go ahead and open it up to public comment on this. We do have an asterisk on the agenda. Is anyone here to comment on the public participation plan for the Shoreline Periodic Update? None of you? Not a single one? Oh, one hand. Come on up. Mr. Wetcher, I think you know the rules. Give your name and location of your residence. Since you already gave my name.

Brian Wetcher, Forest Park Lane. I applaud the Planning Department for bringing this before us again, and the only thing that I would ask about is, is this timeline realistic with DOE even with them being... very on the spot, so to speak, with staff right now in coordination. I don't see a lot of public hearing, public comment noted in the plan on the board. And I would ask about how much public comment there will be going forward. And if the planning department will also put together a kind of ladder document, reviewing all the past comments and staff's comments on those comments. Thank you very much. Thank you for your comment. Anybody else?

All right, Miss Grange. I imagine we will have any number of documents on the SNP update website, including some that are already there about comments and responses to comments. Are we also obligated to update this plan again in 2028?

We are obligated to update again in 2030. 2030.

Okay. So we'll be back here again soon, no matter what. And projected adoption of this by the end of the year is local adoption, but not ecology adoption, right?

Yeah, that's correct. That would be local adoption. After local adoption, the city submits the plan to Department of Ecology, which has its own review and public comment period.

and so that part will happen on their timeline and may in fact take quite a while yep okay all right no other comments no comments from online no okay all right we have a motion a second do i hear any other discussion if not i'll call for the vote no other discussion the motion and the second is on approval of the resolution adopting the public participation program update the plan update for the periodic update as presented. All those in favor say aye. All those opposed say no. The ayes have it and the resolution is approved. Thank you. All right. Our final item this evening before we go into closed session is Clear Ridge Pickleball Court. Mr. Lunsford, our parks director, will make a presentation.

Thank you, Mayor, council members, audience members. So We had a public meeting a couple weeks ago at our Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission at the Senior Center, and it was a room not quite this full, but pretty well attended. And there were many comments and ideas. Some of those will come up tonight, and we just want to present those to you. This is a discussion item, so we're just asking for a conversation on this from you tonight. Okay, so just to orient everyone we're talking about, the red dot is approximately where the pickleball courts are located in Clear Ridge, out by this Ports Airport facility. Zoom in a little bit, you can see the red square, see the courts in relationship to the neighborhood and the airport. The courts or part of a recreation area that was created in the Platte. So in 1979, the Platte was created. And this area was given to the city for recreation purposes. And just for orientation, the courts are located at the north end in the little panhandle. So chronology of the courts. So the courts, I don't know exactly when the tennis courts were created, probably in the early 80s. And then those courts were resurfaced in 2006 by the city at the cost of $33,000. They had worn a bit and probably come a little bit like cauliflower. And so they resurfaced both the tennis courts and the basketball courts. And then in 2017, approximately pickleball courts were installed. So one tennis court was left and four pickleball courts were installed. And that was through a donation from the Anacortes Parks Foundation. Since that time, there have been a lot of conversations about pickleball regarding the noise and the parking, lack of a restroom, garbage, et cetera. So we've had conversations about that at the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission a number of times, but most recently starting in 2024. The asterisks on this slide show that those were large meetings held either here or at the Senior Activity Center in the Great Room. So in November of 2024, we had a large meeting here to talk about Pickleball. Many folks here probably attended that meeting. Then December 10th, the commission members met at their regular area in the Parks and Recreation Office and had conversations about that. Again, in January, they did the same. And then out of that, some ideas came for some changes. There were subsequent meetings, as you can see. Some of those ideas were reducing hours, possible changing of parking, some acoustic block or sound baffles, sound curtains on the courts to try to address the concerns that were raised at those meetings. More meetings were held in August of 2025, another large plenary meeting like this, follow-up meeting in September, and then the most recent meeting in May. Out of one of those meetings in the spring of 2025 came a sign like this posted on the outside of the courts to reduce the hours. Our park hours are roughly 5 a.m. to 10 p.m. We adjust some of them to 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. And then with the staff with the commission, we reduce the hours here for pickleball play from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. That's where they currently stand now. Also, we began installation of the sound sound baths or the sound curtains the acoustic block is the brand name and another generous donation from the Anacortes parks foundation paid for that. You can see here in the picture some volunteers from pickleball Community helping to install those their first installed in the spring of 2020. We removed them in the fall of 2025 because we hadn't braced the fence properly. We were concerned the fence would blow down, which it had the previous winter. So that reinforcement was done in winter or spring of this year, and the curtains went back up just a couple weeks ago. So they're up there now. And thanks to all the volunteers who've helped two times put them up and one time bring them down. So you received a number of public comments that came to us when we announced, we put a sign up on the court saying the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission staff were considering reducing number of days of play. And so at that time, people started to send in comments to us, we collected them, and then they sent subsequent comments on after our meeting in early May for the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission. And these were some of the topics, some of the highlights. You have those comments in your packets, and they were made public in the packet that was published. So these are some of the issues. Noise levels for the residents, the hours of use and the traffic that goes along with that in the parking, the idea for use of quiet equipment, the importance of exercise to all ages, The very social nature of the sport. Many people talk about how they met many of their friends as they moved to town. Intergenerational play, that it's the only local public court in the city. And the need for data collection and surveys to give us more information to make a better informed decision. So one of the questions that came out of that, something we've looked at before and tried to ascertain ourselves, not super successfully because of our equipment and expertise, my own lacking expertise, was some noise assessments from Vancouver, BC, where an organization paid for a company to come and do an acoustic survey and understand the decibel levels. They were emanating from the court with and without curtains and for residences and in neighborhoods of various kinds throughout the city of Vancouver. That information, two reports are in your packet and on the website for the public. I reached out to this company to see what they would charge to do that. I gave them a shot. of the area and i identified six homes and they said that would be approximately ten thousand dollars u.s to do that acoustic survey that could go up or down the number of homes you wanted to add but that was the forgive the pun the ballpark uh figure that they gave to me so ten thousand dollars u.s they're professional they do this for the city of vancouver they're well qualified and their survey data is up for the public to see. We looked into locking gates, automatic locking gates. We asked here, there are companies here that do that in town for some of the marinas, and that would be about $7,000 to install the closers and the battery powered. Our issue is we're not sure how well our old gates would respond. They might have to do some work on the gates themselves. It's not insurmountable. What is probably go beyond the 7,000 is our estimate of that. The good news is it would lock open and close them at a set time if the hours were changed or these hours. The downside is that staff would have to check them still because some people might continue to play. Some of them might block the gates. The gates could malfunction. And so you just have staff involvement. So those are some of the issues around that subject that was raised. Reduce days or hours. So the Parks Commission members and staff spoke after the meeting on, I think, the 11th of May at the Senior Center and looked at what we could or couldn't do based on some of the comments that we heard and some of the comments we've heard over the past couple of years and recommended reducing the hours of play or reducing the number of days of play. Hours of play you could do with a sign and staff going there, the... The most staff experience, and some of yours might be, is that signs are sometimes viewed as suggestions. So people read a sign, they view it as a suggestion instead of a rule. So staff has found that if you really want to make it work, you would need to probably lock the gates. And so staff would need to go do that. That would be, we don't have the staffing to do that. That could be made to happen. It's just a priority we'd have to set, but it would be something we're not currently prepared to staff to do. We thought we could do it midday on a couple days instead of trying to get there late at night or early in the morning. That's harder for us sometimes given our hours of work. In summers, people use other parks in the summertime, so we're often addressing their needs in other places as well. We have, as this has been going on, we've been looking at alternate locations. So at the mayor's suggestion, I put numbers clumsily on my red dots. And I can kind of go through where those are if you don't recognize them offhand. So number one is on the dots here and where my cursor is, is 22nd and K where the tennis courts are. And so you remember last year we had a conversation working with the school district price was around $65,000 to $70,000 to resurface two courts and convert them to both pickleball and tennis.

So the school was ready to give us... Mr. Young?

Would you say that number again? Sure. Between $65,000 and $70,000 to resurface two of the courts and paint on tennis lines and then back underlying with pickleball. So about $65,000 to $70,000. And we had an ILA with school district prepared to go that would allow the public on those during school hours but the school events would take priority, like practices, PE classes, et cetera. Number two was the community recreation area at 22nd, near 22nd or about 24th and R near the skate park. So on the MJB property, we're looking at building a 20 to $25 million community recreation center. Inside we would build a gym with probably about six pickleball courts and outside about four pickleball courts as part of that. So that did not happen. As you know, the money was not raised and that initiative is, indefinite hold on indefinite hold thank you mayor as well well done number three historic park we had um so pickleball advocates bring us the idea of putting some courts in the outfield at the east end of the field um it's not a it's interesting idea it's just would be limiting because we play soccer there um we have a number of community events there bark in the park Kids Are Best Fest, National Night Out, Egg Dash. It would limit a green space that we use for a lot of community events, and so I wasn't prepared to go there. Number four is we looked at an indoor alternative. We looked at some warehouses near 30th and T. Because of the noise issue, we thought maybe we could find a cheap place to go inside that would address weather issues and things of that nature. We do have indoor pickleball, as you know, at Matt Airy School. That's been going on since about 2007. And we have tried it in the basement here as well. But for some who wanted to do some indoor, that was the area we were looking at. The price was too high for what we could really think we could manage. And then finally, number five is down here at the bottom. That's out at Old Brook Lane at Sharps Corner. You know, the city owns some lots out there. There's some issues with leveling and things that would have to take place there. I tried to find some examples of municipalities who had recently built pickleball courts, and the nearest one I could find was the city of Arlington put out to bid for five courts last July, and their low bid came at $401,000 for the five courts. That was just with courts and fence, no lights that I could see in the bid specs. That was on an area that was already gravel a lot and cleared, and they just added those amenities with a sidewalk. So that I thought was a good number to work from. So that was $401,000.

Mr. Lunsford, do you want to talk about some of the considerations, constraints about basement city hall?

Basement of City Hall is not unlike Mallory School. There are a lot of lines on the floor already. It's tile. It's not well upgraded from the past when it was first created and has been that way since the 70s when I played on it for basketball. It's just it's a difficult surface to play on. It's not meant for that kind of recreational activity. It's just a multi-use floor that happens to have pickleball lines on it and basketball lines and such. So there's limitations. It's not as, I think, as fulfilling for the players, and it's limited space. But that's what we have, so that's what we control and can offer. And that's all I have. I want to keep it tight, unless you have questions, because I figured there might be one or two people who wanted to speak.

Okay. Council, I'll go ahead and take questions now. Questions only, please. Questions only.

Mayor Walters.

I'm going to make you write that 20 times on the chalkboard. Please. Ms. Gillian-McGrath.

Just a quick question. Was there ever discussion at Whitney Elementary School using some of that outdoor space?

In the grassy area or the area that's currently under cover?

Either one. The last time we discussed possibly converting some of the tennis courts around the middle school, that seemed to not be a good option just because of the high school play. and other schools not wanting to compete with additional lines on the tennis courts. So I was wondering if that had been discussed at all further with the school district, Whitney?

We did not. We did not take that. I think at the tennis courts, I mean, the WIA doesn't restrict the use of pickleball lines on a court. So it'd be down to preference of the coaches and that's understandable. And those courts, you know, the thing about Clearidge, I think that the criticism that has come is in addition to sound, it's adding all that traffic to a smaller park in a smaller neighborhood. You know, it's become a, what was a neighborhood park became more of a regional attraction as the sport grew. So we are looking for a wide open area to do it. Whitney could be a place that you could look at. You'd probably want to do more sound curtains and things like that. But yeah, we could look at that for sure.

Any other questions? Mr. McDougall?

Yeah, the downstairs, or I guess the basement of City Hall, you said the floor is the primary barrier. Could essentially a floating floor, temporary floor, be put in and basically facilitate play? You could.

The limitation there is it's small. I think that we had one court going there, and that was enough room. I don't know if you could fit in two there. That would be a pretty tight squeeze. But, yeah, you could do amenities at places like that or Mount Airy School if the funds were there to add to the game, if that's what the players were looking for.

Okay. And wild idea, because I don't know how big a pickleball court is, honestly. What about in here? In here? Yeah. Yeah.

people, people like people like to play indoors in Washington state, but they also like being outside. That's saying that when they can be outside is my experience. They like the sunshine, but indoor, you know, that's why we're looking for some indoor options. They have indoor options over in Mount Vernon, you know, at the college, there's a nice new facility there, but local people, in my experience, the comments we received and the observations that when it's sunny, they like to be able to go to a place that's nearby their home. They can walk to, they can drive short, they can ride their bike to and recreate outdoors. And that's, I think, generally what they're looking for is what we've been trying to facilitate, if at all possible.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Will Walters?

Yes, John?

You know, trying to shape this into a question at your... No, actual question, please. Hello, I've got one. Just hang on a second. In the consideration of all of the locations, it's part of the equation... is to consider pickleball in the activity as any of the other sporting things that we do here in town, whether it's tennis, basketball, any of those other things. Because I guess the question for me is, how do we have that here? and not necessarily make it a travel journey. And so I was wondering if that was part of the equation and the push to try to keep it somewhere near Fidalgo Island. Absolutely. I did good. Very nice question. Thank you.

Yes, our goal is to keep it as centrally located as we can. The 22nd near R was a very nice spot because there's a lot of amenities there near the Thompson Trail. That was a prime location. It was just on a definite hold, as the mayor said. That was kind of the primo spot because it was further away from residences. You could have parking, you could have facilities, and people could walk and bike there quite easily. So yeah, that's a good question. That's what we've been looking for. Thank you. Mayor Walters. Mr. Fantini.

I have a question. What is it that you would like? What direction would you like to walk away from here tonight? Like, what is the ask of us on council? I saw that there is a recommendation to reduce hours or to close. Like, what is the ask?

I think from staff and the commission is to hear the public comment, to take your time to digest that, and then have feedback with us as to what you see as council members would be an adequate next step. Would you like to direct us to look into more heavily alternate locations? Would you like us to proceed with the limiting of the hours there? What would you like us to do based on what you hear and the conversation we have afterwards? So just kind of help us being a sounding board is our goal tonight. Thank you.

Depending on what you would like to do, there might be various documents, mechanisms, plans, things, research items that we need to do. So we'll have to figure that out depending on your judgment.

Mayor Walton.

Ms. Malton.

So one of the things that's been mentioned in a couple of different places, including the reports that you sent us, was 55 decibels versus 50 decibels. That was what they were looking at up in BC. And they talked about the sound curtains and is there a way besides hiring a noise assessment group for an acoustic survey for $10,000? Is there any reliable way to get those sound measurements somehow here without spending that kind of money? And also do we think that five decibels would make that big of a difference?

I think that there's a number of considerations in your question, Ms. Moulton, so thank you for asking it. So the simple answer is we could potentially find the equipment that would enhance our ability to measure it ourselves. We didn't have that equipment when we were trying to do it out there. We were getting widely disparaging sound readings in our attempts to try to understand it. We thought they were pretty good at the time, but they were widely varying from up in the 90s to down in the 40s. It wasn't the accuracy we were looking for. And as we've researched it, we could see that. And then we studied what they were doing in Canada. I gave to you the gold standard, what they do in Vancouver. They're professionals. That's what they do. They know that job way better than I do. So we could look at options and bring them back to you. That'd be one thing we could do. And then I think that in the comments you'll see, for some of the homeowners, the decibel level, while it may affect the code readings, it doesn't affect their livability, right? So it could be 55 or 44, but the hours and the amount and the use has an impact on them that is, you'll hear them probably say tonight, has reduced their quality of life. So the generosity of the Parks Foundation putting up the sound curtains, they were advertised at about 9 to 11 decibels, 10 decibels, let's say. They would reduce the sound. But for some, that has not had a positive impact. So I think you'll hear from the people who comment tonight just on their views of the sound laws and the rules in the city code and then their quality of life and how that affects them. So that's my anticipation. But that'll be the conversation we're looking forward with you.

And we could look into the acquisition of professional sound metering equipment, not for the Parks Department, but for code enforcement generally, because obviously sound issues, noise issues come up in a variety of contexts, but we don't have that equipment now.

Mayor Walters. Mr. Currier.

Uh, Mr. Lindstrom, I'm, my question is regarding enforcement. Um, can you talk a little bit about, cause some of the stuff that came to our attention is that if somebody is playing after hours, uh, what are the consequences and who's, who's paying attention to that?

Right. So, um, if we get a call, if I get a call, I'm in town and available, then I would go out. I've done that on a few occasions. Um, sometimes I've caught the people doing it. Sometimes I've just missed them. Um, when I've I was like, look, it's closed. I'm with the city. You got to go. And they do. And so that's hard for us to be available every night at 8 o'clock, seven days a week to be able to do that. I know that the police can be called. I don't, you know, if they're dealing with a situation downtown or domestic violence, obviously there's tiers to what they're going to focus on. If they're available, they go out. I'd have to talk to Chief Floyd to see the numbers of calls and how that response has been. I would imagine they'd have the same conversation. Bay's assigned, it's closed, please go. So that's how the enforcement has played out so far.

So there isn't, like, if you have a few people that are kind of messing it up for a lot of people that are out there kind of pushing the envelope, there's no monetary fee that's being assessed to those people or any mechanism to do that at this point?

We have not done that so far.

Is the mechanism there to do it?

um if um i'd have to defer to ms sweat and chief floyd but i don't i mean depending on how the situation escalated if they were just there i don't know that there's anything i could do to find them once i ask them to go right i mean i would assume most people would follow the rules but they generally do in the case that you have somebody who doesn't i was just curious how that went down

We do have a code section on that creating $125 class to civil infraction for staying in park after hours.

Mayor Walters. We also have a mechanism to trespass people from city facilities, so if there was an individual that was a repeat violator they could be trespassed from the from the area for a period of time, depending on the circumstances and then a violation of that would be it would involve a criminal citation so.

Council, any other questions at this point?

Mayor Walters.

Ms. Hunt.

A very simple question. Could you please leave that slide with the map up while everybody else is having their comments? Absolutely. I think it helps discussion.

Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else? Anybody before we go back to Anthony? Actually, I think you were maybe the second one.

Yeah, go ahead. Thank you, Mr. Walters. Gracious. My... I guess the challenge is I would like to believe that most of the pickleball people are honorable, will honor what's being said or what's not done. And I'm sure I would like to believe and hope that they would also do a bit of self-policing in this process because this type of discussion may be a lot less intense and good intending. So could, would you, Mr. Lundford, sort of give us a total of the investment that was made into this location, whether it's by foundations, team, staff, because I think that's important.

No, thank you for that, Mr. Young. That's a great question. So in 2006, when we resurfaced the court, see there's just the cost of, doesn't have yearly maintenance and things like that, but the cost of the resurfacing in 2006 was $33,000. And so that was, I believe, city money at that time. I couldn't find any notes other than that. And then 2017, when the courts were installed, pickleball courts, the number I found in the Parks Foundation minutes was 19,000. And others here may know that better, but that's the number I have. when those courts were put in in 2017 $19,000 and then in 2025 with the curtains and the fence that purchase came to $33,390 so $33,390 and that was again another Parks Foundation donation so the $19,000 and the $33,390 were donated by the Parks Foundation generously.

But I'm showing that I've got $33,000, $19,000, gave a total of $52,000, and then the $33,000 in 2025 gave a grand total, you know, before park hours and staff of about $85,000. Yeah. Okay. Thank you.

All right, council, I'm gonna go on to public comment at this point. We have a number of people signed up and I'll take those people first and then we'll go on to anybody else. First couple of notes, when you come up, please adjust the microphone. We've got a special longer microphone. It should adjust to whatever height you are at. I'll ask for your name, your city of residence, and if you're in Anacortes, your voting ward or neighborhood, for the record. Each commenter will have three minutes to address the council. There's a set of lights on the podium there. Green means go, yellow means you got 30 seconds, and red means stop. Please address the council, not the audience. Council members won't respond to your questions, so if you ask questions, go ahead, but... We won't stop to respond to them. Meetings are intended to be of a neutral and business-like atmosphere, so we don't allow signs, cheering, or applause or other disruptions. Sometimes I get the name pronunciations wrong here, so we'll just start off. We'll do the best we can. Frank McCoy. Oh, Frank McCoy. That's what it is.

Thank you.

I knew you could handle it, Frank.

Actually, before I start, my name is Frank McCoy. I live in Clear Ridge. I live on Glasgow, right there where the courts are on Glasgow at the top. We're a little bit further down. We hear the airplanes. We don't hear the pickleball. The one thing I would like to have John do before I start speaking is to come up because it was a question that got asked at the – advisory committee meeting that i found very interesting and that is what is the mission statement of the parks and recreation department here in anacortes and i believe probably accepted or adopted by the city council john could you be willing to say you've got it you just got to provide your comment frank Oh, okay. The mission statement is to providing activities for all and to really encourage participation. I guess in my lifetime, I worked in parks and recreation for 30 years. My education was in parks and recreation. And the whole job we had was finding activities. They're always saying, why isn't there something for kids? Why can't you do this? Why can't you do that? We moved in the wintertime, not year-round, to a place in Arizona, 55 community of 26,000 people. There's 1,700 in the pickleball club, and that's people over 55. If we put that, the same numbers as on the island, there'd be about 1,000 to 1,200 probably as pickleball players here. and to shut it down three days a week and the other thing that astounded me i guess when i went to the meeting we had just put up our volunteers and the park department had just put up the sound boards uh that day and yet we're talking about shutting it down three days a week And when I hear also the numbers for like getting decibels, one of the complainers said she took the decibel reading there and it was loud. I have a friend I mentioned decibels to, and he worked on a highly classified ship in the ocean, and he was the sound tech. He said, oh, I could take a decibel reading and get a decibel reading up there. So I think those things could be done voluntarily, not by spending $10,000 to have somebody come in and evaluate that. And does the decibels really matter if it's bothering somebody? The airport, to me, the decibels, we've had to quit playing for a period of time. While the planes take off, they're so loud. So, you know, complaining about that when... I think it was after about the first year, I did a survey of people there. One woman that lives just to the right of the courts as you go there, she was concerned about parking in front of the hydrant and wanted that painted yellow, the city painted it yellow. John's done an excellent job in getting and securing parking space out in back of where the basketball courts are out there. So the parking has really been kind of taken care of. Everybody doesn't like everything. And I know there was one gentleman who was complaining particularly at first about things, and he wanted trees put up. $2,200 was the estimate, and I didn't ever see the final cost, but they didn't really do anything. The sound barriers that have been put up now are from cities all over the country that put them up for urban pickleball courts. So I guess my feeling is I'd like to see and recommend to the city council that you take some desk ball readings, that you see how it is with the permanent sound barrier before you start cutting down and abandoning pickleball three days a week.

Thank you, Mr. McCoy.

Any of. Thank you.

All right. Next on our list is John Pope. And after John will be Paula Plummer.

Hi, I'm John Pope, 4001 Peters Lane. I've been kind of a friend of the city for years. I'm on the Anacortes Parks Foundation now. I also had the honor of working with Frank on the initial court job. The other thing I had the honor to do was work with, excuse me, Nicole Johnson, a wonderful woman, who selected the material on a recommendation, did the research, and the Acoustablock, actually the point I really want to make, it really works. If you walk up to somebody who's having a loud argument, and you get that stuff between you and those people, you will not be able to distinguish what they're saying. You also can't see through it, so if you're irritated by the play, you're not seeing it. So actually, it also cuts the wind, which helps play, especially in a windy area like the airport. So what we really did... Because we kind of fixed the fact that the park was built a little too close. And we really did fix it. 11 decibels is a lot. And it really does it.

Thank you, Mr. Pope. Paula Plummer.

Hello, good evening. Paula Plummer, 3918 M Avenue. I live up by Mount Airy School. Thank you for the opportunity to comment. I submitted a written comment yesterday. I don't know if it made it to the packet, but I did read the entire packet before I submitted my comment. My concern is that limiting the use of public land is outrageous. I am tired of trying to mitigate a situation over this period of time where the people who have made the complaint are not establishing the case that we should switch the state law, switch the city law for their convenience. Public land is scarce. This is a very limited resource that a lot of community members use. There are very few people that have objected. I read the written objections. I've listened to comments in meetings. I gave my phone number to the big complainer. and nothing, no response. That was an attempt to mitigate concerns, take them very seriously. I absolutely, many of us have had numerous conversations about what can we do to make everybody happy. You know, we don't have to do that. Legally, that is not required. The efforts that have been made are, in my opinion, they haven't made a prime official case that they are harmed or that the activity is causing them either a nuisance or that the sound level is beyond what the state law and the city under the state law requires. So they can do that, they can pay the money, that's not the city's burden. And believe me, I have been very sympathetic, I know this sounds harsh, but this is ridiculous to have this many people show up this many times to try to mitigate. A lot of people here want more courts, different places, but park hours are either five, the state law says public parks are open from seven in the morning till 10 at night. limiting eight to eight that is not legal that shouldn't have happened it's arbitrary it doesn't address the issue uh and the parks commission uh the advisory committee thank them for their work but it doesn't address the issue we don't know what the work hours are or when the people are home or not home whether eight to ten or noon to one it's an arbitrary decision unless you're talking about actual impact on the people on both sides So, just changing hours, it's not effective, it's not legal either. The Canadian study is based on different Canadian standards. Their situation is different. We have state law. The city has to follow state law. We don't follow BC law. We're not a province. So it's interesting. It's interesting. It was interesting a couple of years ago, but it's not relevant to the decision that the council needs to make right now.

Thank you, Ms. Palmer.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Mike Van Quickenborn, and he'll be followed by Justin Kirby.

Yes, my name is Mike Van Quickenborn. I live up on Hillcrest Drive. Can I cede my time to Paula? No, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. Thank you for asking. Yes. So just to let you know, I play pickleball typically at Mount Erie at the school at night and been doing that for a couple of years and it's great. But just so you also know, I played in the basement here in City Hall and actually I prefer it to Mount Erie. It can fit one court very nicely. So maybe consider that, you know, for the future, it's a nice place to play. Yeah, but I do want to actually echo what Paula was saying because, of course, you all have the power to set what I would consider really a terrible precedent by closing a park for the first time that at least anybody can remember here in Anacortes. And basically the precedent that you would set is to let a small handful of people diminish the ability of hundreds of people, residents and out-of-towners alike, to enjoy a very post-social and healthy activity. Just to put this in a different context or example, a lot of people live along R Avenue. I am certain that if the city were to reduce the speed limit there to, I don't know, 25 miles an hour, 20 miles an hour, that would reduce the noise along R Avenue. That would maybe increase their standard of living there. But of course, you wouldn't consider doing that, and you shouldn't, because there's a lot of people who benefit from that being a thoroughfare. Likewise, San Juan Passage, that development there where you go down through to get to the Guaymas Channel Trail cul-de-sac, those developers actually spent the money to put in a pickleball court. So apparently, it's a nice thing to have in a neighborhood. But beyond that, I can imagine that the people who live in that neighborhood don't like this constant stream of traffic down to that cul-de-sac. to access the Glamis Channel Trail. I mean, all day long, every day, I could imagine that there might be a few squeaky wheels who might complain if they hear that the city's open to closing public access to public property over a few complaints. And maybe they're going to come to you and say, hey, let's close the Glamis Channel Trail for a few days a week so we can have less traffic in our neighborhood. I don't think you would do that, because I think that would be absurd, of course. But it points to the fact that you as a city ought to be recognizing in your packet the overwhelming voice in favor of preserving pickleball in this town. So yeah, I just wanted to add that. Yeah. So I encourage you to make sure you take a good look at that packet because there were a lot of powerful arguments in there. And it really points to speaks to the fact that there are hundreds of people who benefit from those courts and to close them would really be a shame.

Thank you. Thank you. Next, Justin Kirby, followed by Junko Gross.

Hi, Justin Kirby, 3966 Rock Ridge Parkway. I love pickleball. Bring the mic a little closer. Sorry.

Justin Kirby, 3966 Rock Ridge Parkway.

I love pickleball. I'm 59 years old. I love playing tennis. I can't play tennis anymore. It's just too rough a sport for me. And it's given me so much joy to play over the last two years. And I've made so many friends. It's so popular. It's actually the fastest growing sport in America right now. I only heard about the idea to limit the pickleball courts about an hour ago. I guess I have the same questions. Do you have any idea how many people are complaining? Has there been any signatures gathered so you can understand how many people are actually concerned? The decibel level, you know, if you tested it versus a baseball game, a football game, a high school tennis game, or against any of the numerous public parks that we have in our town. You know, again, this is a public park. It's right next to the airport. It's obviously incredibly loud over there. I live over there. I hear the planes too. Yeah. You know, when people around this park bought their house, they knew there was a park there. They shouldn't be able to dictate what a public park does or who goes to a public park. It's our taxpayers' money that's got that public park. And just as others were saying, you know, what's next? Are we going to tell Little League and high school baseball that they're too loud and limit them? Their houses all along are... baseball fields, all around our fields. Should we turn off the lights because they're too bright? Should we say no announcers anymore? Tell the junior high and high school football that they're too loud? Tell the skate park they're too loud and limit them? It just makes no sense that we're taking away a rejuvenating popular pastime without a lot of data. And I guess, please don't limit the time when you don't actually have all of the facts that you need. So thank you.

Thank you. All right. Junko Gross and then Dave Geyer will be next. Do we have Junko? Okay. All right. Perfect. That is perfectly all right. All right. Dave Geyer, followed by Susan Yip.

Good evening, Mayor, Council. Congratulations on becoming mayor. You've wanted to be a mayor for a long time, and for the five years I've been here, you're in, so congratulations. I hope you do a great job. Mr. Fantini, you're representing my area. Congratulations on your appointment. Regarding the pickleball courts, I'm 200 feet away. I'm one of those people that's in the... in the zone of noise. And pickleball noise is really not the problem. And some of these pickleball enthusiasts Don't live near our pickleball court, which happens to be the only one down on San Juan. When that developer put that in there, it was dedicated over there, and they have very restricted hours of use. And it's limited to just those residences. That's why you're not playing there. Same thing at Skyline. But the big problem that everybody is forgetting is that the parking isn't solved. And now that we have our beautiful long days, people come to the park area, which was originally back in the late 70s when that was developed. It was just a neighborhood park. It's not a Washington State Park. It's a neighborhood park that was a basketball court and a tennis court, which has now been translated into pickleball and basketball and tennis. I digress. The big problem is that you wouldn't want defecation and trash everywhere. In your yard. And people, as Commissioner Young pointed out, it would be really great if everybody followed the rules, but they don't. That 8 to 8 is ridiculous because now that we have the long line, people are there until 10, plan. And so it would be nice if the police came out, but it's not that. And there's no... I guess if people followed the rules, that would be great. But if there was some... A penalty for breaking the law or trespassing, that would be good, but the city doesn't seem to want to do that. I was here last year, and we talked about the same thing, and if the hours were a little fewer and were enforced, that would be great. If the park and rec doesn't have the staff to go there, whatever the time is, to unlock the lock and put the lock back on, I would be happy. I'm already a volunteer for the police department of our beautiful city. And I will be for a small stipend, happy to be your gatekeeper. And I will lock it and unlock it every day. And that would really probably keep the problem. Dave Geyer, I'm at 4422 Glasgow. Thank you.

All right. We'll take your employment application at the door. Thank you very much. Susan Yip is next. And then Len Cluft.

Hi, my name is Susan Yip. I live in Clearidge, and I'm like three blocks away from the pickleball court. We can't hear that much, but we moved here like less than three years ago and we actually were tennis players. So one of the reasons why we moved here was like, hey, there's a tennis court. So pick a ball was like, okay, that's not for real people, right? So the thing is with tennis, it's hard to find people that can play, right? So my husband plays a lot better than me. So he's got tired of playing with me. So we actually went to the dark side, actually, and we, went to pick a ball because you know when we see people playing there's a lot of old people okay i'm old too i'm chinese so you can't tell but there was a lot of people playing when we were playing tennis we're like okay that's kind of you know it's like two square right but that's from not looking but the fact that there was older people playing they're out there and they're getting exercise okay so after our eyes were open because we went to um arizona and we learned how to play there and so we came back and we had newfound love of the games. I live three blocks away, so I can't see it, but I can't hear it. Maybe on a clear day, I could hear it maybe a little bit, but I don't live that close. When we go there just recently, and I wanted to tell you that it's a whole there's a whole age group of people that play so i'm thinking the naysayers if you look here um i'm sorry but everybody's kind of old okay sorry you know all around our age so I don't know, like, you know, you don't get mean senior citizens, right? So, you know, we've been around for a while, we're gonna follow rules. So the people that probably aren't following rules, maybe are some of the younger folks that are there and you just need to tell them to go. So, but the fact that there's young people that play there too, there's little kids, I saw a grandmother, you know, playing with her grandchild. One of my neighbor friends, She has three young boys, and he just goes there and just looks longingly at the old people playing, right? And he just longingly looks, and he comes with his grandpa sometimes or his dad, and they play. And in middle school or in school, they'll have pickleball, so they'll have nowhere to play, right? So we got 20 seconds. Anyway, so it's multi-generational. My husband is an engineer, and he's introverted i'm honestly not but you know it's a good way to meet people and there's it's very social i met so many of these friends that i wouldn't have met before i got three seconds and it's and it's in it anyway so please don't shut it down thanks thank you uh all right uh next line cluffed and then uh brad adams

I'm going to test out the limits of your microphone here. You mentioned, you mentioned it goes pretty high. This is pretty good. Len Clough, 11 Clearidge, 4211 Glasgow Way. I met Dave just this weekend when we got together. I didn't realize where he lived. I didn't realize he was right across from pickleball courts. And I didn't realize I'm a huge rule follower. So if it says eight to eight, I'm going to play not past eight o'clock. And if that's a problem, and I trust you that it is, then we should do something about that. I mean, if that sounded like that was your primary concern even more than the noise is, then we should absolutely do something about that. If the kids are listening to radios there, we should have something on the signs that says, you know, no radios or something like that. I guess what concerns me about the solution that's being offered right now is it lacks creativity. It seems like sort of a lazy way to solve the problem. We have a noise problem. Well, why don't we just shut down what's causing the noise? But there isn't another place to play in Anacortes other than the Mount Airy courts. And those are only open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from seven to nine. And I've played there 50 times. I'm really grateful to have it when it's raining. But on a sunny day, you want to be outside. You want to play on a court that only has one set of lines. So I'm really adamantly against closing it. But, you know, we moved here six years ago. Let's check my time here. We moved here six years ago, and it's hard to meet people. You know, I joined Kiwanis. That helped a lot of them and a lot of great people through Kiwanis. But most of the people that I've met, most of the friendships that I have now in Anacortes actually came through Pickleball, and that's no lie. It's a community. You're playing. You're rotating. You've got people. Adrian's great at this. He'll have a roundtable going or a round robin going. It's very competitive, but you'll have young people playing with old people. We've got people in their 80s playing with people who are in their teens. It's the only sport like that in the city. It's the only place where people get around together like that in the city and have fun and get to know one another and break barriers. And I really hope that we consider that when we look at solutions. I'm for all these different places. Any one of these places I'd be willing to drive to. I currently occasionally go to Mount Vernon, but we shouldn't have to go to Mount Vernon to play. And I appreciate Councilman Young's comment earlier about trying to keep people in town and the bus services and trying to get people to spend their money here. Well, I can tell you, if I'm driving out to Mount Vernon to play pickleball, I'm going to get dinner in Mount Vernon. I'm going to go to the Costco. I'm going to go to the other grocery stores. I'm going to spend my money over there because that's where I am at that time. And people are doing that here. I've played a number of times with people who came on the ferry and went on to playtime scheduler, found the Clear Ridge Courts. And I know that even exacerbates the problem because then even more people are playing here. But those people are spending time in Anacortes. And hopefully after they play pickleball, they'll go to one of the bars or they'll go to one of the restaurants or they'll spend some time and get to Norris City. Maybe they'll move here. But we've got to keep those amenities. So thanks for your time. Thanks for all you're doing.

Thank you. Next up is Brad Adams, followed by John Beale. And then that will conclude the list and we'll take hands from the audience. Mr. Adams.

Hello, everyone. My name is Brad Adams. I live on the Ward 2 side of 30th Street. I'm also a member of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee, although my comments tonight are my own and not intended to represent that committee. I have a strong appreciation for the neighborhood, the park users, the Parks Foundation, and the Parks and Recreation Department for their valuable insights and contributions as we all look toward identifying solutions to this issue. I'm here to make a case for a fair and balanced approach to pickleball use at Clear Ridge Park. This is a small neighborhood park, and the current level of play has grown far beyond what the surrounding homes can reasonably absorb. the general the general noise the popping sound of the paddle as it hits the ball the traffic and the daily activity these are all issues that have become a real burden for the people living closest to the courts at the same time pickleball is a valued community activity and players deserve a place to play and neighbors deserve a peaceful use of their homes this isn't about choosing one group over another It's about creating a solution that respects both the neighborhood and the park users. I'm suggesting that the city council consider supporting a solution of reducing hours of play, as well as closing the courts up to three days a week. This will give nearby neighbors a predictable period of quiet while still supporting meaningful access for players. Other cities have adopted similar measures as a way to keep neighborhoods and parks welcoming for everyone. I'm also in favor of the process of identifying more suitable sites, places with better buffers, more parking, and an infrastructure that can support the sports growth. This has become a contentious issue, but it really doesn't need to be. Please consider that Clear Ridge Park is a neighborhood park and was never designed or intended to be a high-use sports facility. The impacts for the families living right next to the courts are real. A little understanding and flexibility will go a long way toward finding a solution that works for everyone. This is about fairness, balance, and planning for the future so that both the neighbors and the players can enjoy our parks with minimized conflict.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Adams. Mr. John Beale.

Hi, good evening. Mayor and city council members, thank you for the opportunity. I want to just provide a little bit of context for this. Could you state your name and your... Excuse me, John Beale. I live on Tartan Place in Skyline. Thank you. And I'm approximately about maybe four or five blocks from the Clearidge Courts and have been playing there for several years. A number of people have noted... that one of the benefits of this beyond the obvious exercise is the social element of it. My wife and I have also met numerous people through this behavior, if you can call it that, if it's not a sport. And, you know, it has become a catalyst actually for a lot of people here in meeting one another. So I really applaud that. The context that I wanted to make is, although we're talking about clearage, With the population that is growing here, I think you should also be wondering about what the expectation might be several years going forward. So while the consideration on the table is to reduce or take away completely the activity of pickleball at Clearidge and put it in one of these other locations, there may well be a need for additional locations going forward. The other context I wanted to say, and several people raised this, is let's just say I'm in my mid-60s. And I am thrilled to be able to play with 20-year-olds and 30-year-olds and 40-year-olds and 50-year-olds. And there are many people I play with also who are older than I am. So there's a sense of community around this. And there aren't that many activities that are physical in nature that also have that social benefit. And somehow... in many communities across the country and across North America, this has become a thing. So I think everybody would be sympathetic to those who live nearby and have concerns about it. But depriving people of specific days in which they could engage in pickleball, I think is actually really limiting for activities for the community overall. And there are also, I should say, there are a lot of young kids who play this. And if you close down the courts over the weekend, I mean, when are kids out of school? So thank you very much.

Thank you. That concludes the list of people that have already signed up. Would anyone else like to provide testimony? Yes, right over here on the far side. Come on up.

Hi, my name is Dolores Centinella and I live with probably, oops, probably a hundred feet from the courts. We have been trying to deal with this, work with the parks and rec to come up with a solution for the last probably three or four years plus. And it's kind of frustrating because I've lived in my house for 30 years and I never thought I'd have to defend my right to enjoy my backyard. I have... We players are playing between two to four hours at a time. And if I may, I'll play a short little short video of what it sounds like in my backyard, right out my front door or right out my back door. That's what we have to listen to. Awesome. That's good for sounding. You can hear people talking, you can hear them, the noise of the pickle balls It's horrible. And to have to, I hear people laughing, but whatever. And then the meeting on May 12th was a real eye-opener. I left that meeting feeling sick to my stomach. We were called pickleball haters. We've been called Karens. We've been called all kinds of things. And we should be able to enjoy our home. they've suggested we turn up our music, wear earplugs and just sit back and enjoy their happy sounds. One lady at the meeting asked if there was any litigations and John said, no. And then she said, well, why the hurry? We've been dealing with this for years. trying to get people to understand that they get to go home and enjoy their homes. We don't. And reducing, we've asked to reduce the hours. We've asked them if they would come up and close it down or, you know, to lock it up every day and unlock it. They don't have the staff. Well, if they don't have the staff to control this, it needs to be decommissioned because if it's not, they're not going to actively look for a different place because it's up there. And the noise of the airplanes that may last 10 to 15 seconds, and then it's gone. So it's not like it's 12 hours a day.

All right. Thank you, Ms. Sentinel.

Thank you.

Thank you. All right. I saw more hands over here. Come on up.

Hello, my name is Lori Skirota. I live on Anaco Beach Place, and I don't know what ward I'm in. Am I in three? I'm in three. Thank you. Thank you for taking us and talking about this. I wish we didn't have to have this conversation. I guess part of me is that it's frustrating. It's frustrating. I am fairly new to the sport, coming back after a broken clavicle, which I broke on the pickleball court, but I'm right back into it. I am from the area, but my husband is not. And as someone else shared, this is the most welcoming community. 90% of our friends are, a lot of them are sitting right here. are from pickleball it is such a welcoming community of all ages um i think it's so great like john said you play with 20 years olds a lot of little kids in the in the neighborhood at clear ridge come and play with us we have been keeping score for us um they come on this court and everything um a couple things have been pointed out i think it's great i'm sorry that um that they play at 10 o'clock at night. That is a, we're creating a solution to a problem by closing the courts that is overdone. We need to enforce that. We need to enforce that. So if they're playing late, I would like to know how many times that's happening before we go overkill on that. So we need to figure out how to, you know, if it's eight to eight, then we need to stop it at eight, you know? And so let's fix that problem.

Let's make that.

I guess one of the things that's frustrating for us that we play is the airport.

That decimal is about 95.

So those decimals, if you look it up, it's about 95. And we truly need to measure what the decimals are of the pickleball court. For you, it's not noise. It's the parking and things like that. So let's address that. But let's address what we can address and fix those smaller things, because the impact, the positives, far outweigh what's going on on that pickleball court, which is an economic impact. Someone else pointed out, we're gonna go to Burlington, and we're gonna go to Mount Vernon, and we're gonna stay over there, and we're gonna create new groups of people to play pickleball with, and we're not gonna come back to Anacortes if we're not allowed, you know, because court time is as, is not going to be able to be found. If you're shutting everyone into four days, they're going to stay over there and create groups of people to play pickleball with over there. And they're not going to start coming back to Anacortes. And so they're going to do more at Blackburn, at Hillcrest, and at Playtime Pickleball and other places. And so when we play, sometimes we go out here. We have people coming from Friday Harbor, from Mount Vernon, from Burlington, from Studio Woolley to play over here. And then we go out to dinner in Anacortes. So there's economic impact as that as well.

Thank you, Ms. Sperna. All right. I saw another hand. Yes, come on up.

Hello, my name's Ed Skirota. I'm with Laurie. We're a pet item. Anaco Beach, place Fortry. I'm new to the area. All the things that we want to share before, including concerns about noise or parking.

Please change up the mic or you won't get very sensitive to what's going on in the neighborhood.

I am a very active organizer in our group. There's probably about 50 people here that are a regular part of our community. We're willing to help enforce if we have to. If there's a group that gets created, if we were to organize ourselves as a pickleball association, hey, these guys aren't showing up. We want quiet. We want better use of the courts. We're willing to participate in that. Also, I'm active, and I think Adrian would share this as well, helping you find a new place, finding funding for that. organizing ourselves together, finding a way to really make this a win-win for everybody. The other thing is economically, As an organizer, I don't have any cocktail parties or offers I've made for everybody meeting at the Union Tavern, meeting at all the other places that we have in town. Afterwards, when I was playing in Mount Vernon, we'd just go over there. We'd visit those bars. We'd visit those restaurants. We'd have a lot of fun and do things socially. So brawling the money away from here is not something that would be as attractive, I would think, for you guys to think about. And that's something that... I'm willing to participate. I know there's a few other people that are also willing to participate to try to find a new facility and so that everybody could have peaceful enjoyment. That's the bottom line. We want to participate. We want to make a difference.

Thank you. Anybody? Yes, come on up.

My name is Stephanie Kwa. I live at 3955 Bay Lane. I believe I belong to Ward 2. Frank asked, what was the mission statement of Parks and Recreation? I thought I'd pull it up and read it out to everyone. The Anacortes Parks and Recreation Department seeks to preserve and enhance the quality of life for all residents by providing accessible, high-quality recreational facilities and opportunities regardless of age, race, sex, wealth, or physical ability. And I really do believe that the Clearidge Courts does fulfill that mission statement. And I do empathize with the neighbors and with a lot of those picklers here. We don't break rules. That's not what we do. And I don't know what kind of people will go defecate on somebody's lawn. And I can almost guarantee you it's not one of the picklers that I know. So we have also made concessions, right? I mean, Parks and Recreations decided to shorten the hours. I don't know the rules and the regulations behind it, but we went with it. Okay, that's fair, right? So we just play for 12 hours a day. We followed. And then we made further concessions. And when we got funding for the sound baffles, we put it up. Volunteers, people like the Yips and many of these people, they come and they help set it up. They bring it down. What I used to do was pull weeds because the baffles kind of have a lot of weeds growing out. I'll do that. A lot of the picklers will come and clean the courts. Some kids came in and broke bottles and there was glass. I came and I picked them up. We care about this park. We care about the neighborhood. We love it. I think we should not arbitrarily close or shorten the time that we are able to use this park without clear data around sound. Now, they might think that the airport's not loud. When you are standing there playing pickleball, your heart starts pounding when the plane takes off and it lands. But you know what? It's just part of the neighborhood. It's just part of something that's by the courts. We put up with it. You know, if there are ways that we can help be better neighbors, we would love to do that. Now, if I start going to Burlington, very nice club, I belong to SVP in Mount Vernon, I will shop there. We have more options now. And don't take that away from Anacortes. We're taxpayers. We want to do the right thing. So help us do the right things. But let's make sure that we're not penalizing hundreds of people because there are a few people who are complaining about it. Let's try to work together on this. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Anyone else? Oh, yep. Come on up.

Keith Howard, 2304 Skyline Way. So I just want to share an incident that occurred one evening. We were playing pickleball, doing our thing. It was probably about 6 o'clock at night, and a gentleman in the neighborhood, and I believe the address was 4431, I guess that's Blakely, yelled at us. A lot of anger. He said we were being too loud. A lot of colorful language. Lots of F-words. And we're just there doing our thing, just playing pickleball, having a good time. But the level of anger was extreme. I felt threatened. And this was not the only occasion that that had occurred. Merlene, with her hand raised, experienced something similar. I think it was the day before. This gentleman came down to the courts and confronted them similarly, that they were being too loud. A lot of colorful language. And that's not constructive. We're here, I think, with an attitude of what can we do to solve this? Yelling F this and F that out your door isn't very constructive.

Thank you. Anybody? Come on up. And then Linda Martin.

Yes, good evening. I live at 4917 Heather Drive. My name is Merlene Stiles, and I spoke with Keith because it happened to, I think there were about eight ladies playing that day, and the person was, I don't know who the person was, but they did live in the neighborhood. They were actually on the park properties, very close to us, yelling the F word at us and screaming at us, and You know, that should not be happening. And I said to myself, if that happens in the future, I'm going to call the police because we were truly threatened. And you've got eight women there, senior ladies playing pickleball to be screamed at and threatened. Thank you very much for your consideration.

Thank you. All right. Linda Martin. And then anybody else? All right. And then you next.

Linda Martin, Ward 3. I'm a member of a local church that is centrally located and has a huge, mostly empty parking lot and about... a little more than a year, several board members from that church met with Mr. Lunsford and said, the church is interested in partnering somehow with the city to build a couple pickleball courts Nothing has ever come of it. I believe that the church is still interested in that. Arcing would not be an issue. The location is central. I think it's worth looking into again. Thanks.

We'll be in touch. All right. Over here. Come on up. Anybody else after? All right. And then you.

hi i'm debbie amos and i live at 8650 turners bay place which i think is actually just outside the city limits but um i have a library card i pay extra for so go ahead So there's a couple of things. One is I checked at what you would hear at a decibel of 60 decibels, and it's normal conversation. So it sounds like we're trying to get the level down below normal conversation, which I don't think is realistic. Another thing is... It's my understanding that the house closest to the pickleball courts, those people don't complain about it. They don't mind it. That's not to say others living nearby are irritated by it, but it's not everybody. And I don't know how many it is. And I think that's part of the information that would be valuable in deciding where to go from here. The other thing is those courts are not used from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. every single day. If it's raining, it's too dangerous to play out there because you can fall. It's windy a lot of the time, which can be hilarious to play, but... a lot of people just don't play because it can get very frustrating. So, you know, I don't know how many days it actually is eight to eight with constant play, but most of the time it is not. So thank you.

Thank you. And, oh, yes, come on up.

My name is Betty Ann McCoy, and I live at 4205 Glasgow Way in Clearidge. And I love pickleball. I played it for 10 years. I'm 84 years old. So 20 years from now, I hope there's a fun, wonderful activity for all of you to play with your grandchildren and all your neighbors because it's terrific. Thank you.

Thank you. All right, is there anyone else? Yes, Mr. Wetcher.

Brian Wetscher, Forest Park Lane. I've been around Anacortes long enough to know that the name Clear Ridge is the most accurate development name in the town since it was a forest and they cleared the ridge. And part of the agreement with that development I was friends with the developers, actually, was that they developed that park space within that footprint. They developed a minimum park space because it was designed to be strictly a neighborhood park. Now, I'm not going to take sides on pickleball one way or the other at that park, and I certainly don't relish what the park staff and this council is going to have to decide on the use of that particular facility. But I think this points out to the community lack of capacity for recreational participation of all kinds. I would suggest for an interim or long-term solution for Pickleball that both a warehouse facility And an associated outdoor court could be a very feasible facility down in the warehouse district. I would suggest that they could use the model that several of the local junior volleyball associations have come up with in either renting or purchasing a facility and establishing courts within that using sport court. Sport court can be replaced and removed. That's perhaps a good long-term solution to this. capacity for the city of anacortes but i want to address that a little bit farther we need to follow through and pursue as much as possible the recreation facility idea recreation center for anacortes this is just the tip of the iceberg we have an over capacity people go elsewhere our children go elsewhere and live in other communities because we consistently lack the facilities to keep them, you might say, entertained or enjoying their athletics here. The SEVA, Skagit Island Volleyball Association of the Juniors, they have a warehouse over behind Costco because there was no facilities available on the island. We are sending our youth out of the community because they do not have the recreational opportunity. And this is something that it's not on the Parks Department. It's on you folks right here and the community to step up and provide a future in our community for these type of activities the possibilities are endless if we go and do the work that generates the the dollars they need to happen i know it's only money but that's what we say about everything in the city thank you thank you mr wetcher all right anyone else seen none uh is there anyone online who would like to comment put your hand up now

Don't see any hands going up online. All right. Council, because we've heard these complaints, because of the passion from neighbors, passion from others, maybe some of which was expressed inappropriately, and because I'm very interested in solving this problem, we've put this in front of you so you can consider it yourself. We already have in our adopted capital facilities plan a note indicating that when new courts are completed, the clearage courts will be decommissioned. If you want to rescind, change that policy or set a deadline on it, because it currently has no deadline, it's up to the city's legislative body to do so. Before we talk a little bit more about this, Ms. Swenham, do you have any commentary on some of the legal issues that were raised about the city's ability to regulate the use of the courts or the hours?

Yeah, I do. There were some concerns raised about the legality of the city's ability to regulate time and use of parks. And I just wanted to reassure council that that's solidly within the city's police powers to limit. The city could adopt a rule that says you can't play pickleball at any city courts, and that would be solidly within the city's police powers. So there are no Constitutionality issues or or issues related to your ability to regulate parks and, in fact, you've delegated some of that authority to the parks director in the code so.

Okay, thank you. So, counsel, this is listed on the agenda as discussion. You can discuss now. You can go listen to the noise for yourself, examine the noise curtain if you want. It's not quasi-judicial. You just can't all go together. Or you could refer to the Parks and Rec Committee to study it and return with a recommendation.

Mayor Walters?

Mr. Fantini.

Yes. So I just think it's kind of funny that, again, we have something in front of us with no great options. What's difficult is we're kind of looking at balancing... balancing people's ability to have fun recreation with people's quality of life, because I have to be very honest and I'm going to be a little vulnerable here and say this. Um, if somebody had a pickleball court outside of my home that was open from eight to eight every day, I would be very, that would definitely be something that I think probably many of us would grade on over time. Um, I have a When. That park was put in did there was there originally put in not change to pick a ball was there like any kind of public process or the city could just kind of do that did there have to be any kind of meetings about what went into that park when it was first put in.

You miss Fenton mean with it.

The tennis scores in the last one when it very first put in before I knew.

I was 16 and not paying a lot of attention. It's fair. To that. The plat's not super, and Ms. Swetnam and I have tried to look through it, it's not super directive as to what exactly would happen there other than it was set aside for what the plat set as a recreation area. We can go back and research the minutes from that time and see what was done.

I was just curious. And then I guess my other question is, before it was changed to pickleball, was there any complaints prior to pickleball?

I mean, every park has its complaints. And so we would get, you know, problems with garbage there and the lack of, you know, mutt mitts for dogs and things like that. So we would address those. But I don't recall a lot of complaints around, maybe around basketball and some broken glass and things like that. But nothing of what you're seeing now with this kind of situation.

Okay, and then just one more question, and thank you for indulging me. Okay. If we were to change the use of like, let's say we were going to put pickleball courts in Storvik Park, would we have to have a public process around that?

Um, have to, I don't know. We generally, my habit has been to try to get people to a place to talk about things before we do that, because I think it just allows people to have their say. And it's not required. I don't, I don't know. That would be a question more for the planning department and Ms. Swetnam, but that's been our general practice. We try to do that more now if we're making a change to have those conversations. I think we learned that lesson at the spray pad. We should have had more conversations. That was 2016. We made some allotments there, but I think that we've tried to do that a bit more. Not we don't always succeed, but that's our goal.

this is a really hard issue because i certainly like it's the only pickleball court in anacortes it's the only public one the only public one thank you and i don't i can't i can't see supporting closing it without any kind of op without any kind of other option um available but with that being said again i feel like what I think about like, we wouldn't be heading towards a brand new event center if we didn't have to close down the transit shed. So maybe the way to get us closer to a solution is to come up with a compromise where we do start limiting it slightly. I would be open to exploring that. But number one... Enforcement, because it seems like for years we've been having complaints and there hasn't been any enforcement. And then to hear that like there's a law rule ordinance thing on the books that would allow someone to. to give $125 ticket, I just wonder. I don't believe anybody out here is any of the bad actors that we're talking about. I just don't see that. I see it being more as the out-of-towners that come here when the pickleball courts close earlier in other parts of Skagit County, but I don't see it as this group. But we got to come up with a we have to come with a solution. And I think it starts with enforcement, like genuine, real enforcement of of what's there.

Mel Walters, Mr. Young, you know, first, I want to start out by saying I am sympathetic to the homeowners who struggle with it. I really do think that she or they have every right to have a differing opinion. They do. And yet. I want to, many of you that may not know me, even though like you said, Susan, that you look younger than you might actually be. The same thing happened to me. I like to say I'm doing 50 again multiple times, okay? But the thing about it that... I'm saying to all of you is being not only responsible for the neighbors. I believe that's why I asked the question about self-policing. And, you know, I'm a fervent advocate of the reality. We do a lot for youth here. There's more we could do. I know that. But what I'm also want to say that in this doing as much as we can for youth, I want to recognize how much work the seniors put in, the Kiwanis, the Rotarists, the Seroptimists, the money that's spent here in town, the organization, the volunteerism. It is a brilliant and wonderful thing. And I think we also need to advocate for activities that cater to I don't know if I like the term seniors. I like the term seasoned. When I started out youthful, I was just salt and pepper. Now I'm smoky paprika, little star anise. But what I am seeing, though, in a little tongue in cheek is that I recognize the need. Pickleball is a huge thing. We would lose by not expanding our ability to have pickleball. And I think that as a city, you know, yes, there are things that we could be doing. And I love the idea that the gentleman say I was writing notes about looking at other ways and places that we can have additional courts. I really do. And I thought that, you know, maybe the gentleman that alluded to sometimes parks, can become crowded and overused. Well, the reason for that is everybody, pickleball is a thing. Everybody wants to be part of it. They want their play. So it seems that the urgency is also in trying to figure out where else we can have pickleball court, you know, and also in, as my colleague said, the enforcement of our policy, those priorities, sometimes bad players sully the whole thing. But I do believe that pickleball is a collector of people and it brings people together. I am a advocate for pickleball. I don't play. I want to learn how to play. I've got back issues, but the reason I'm saying what I'm saying is that as mature people, seasoned people. We've got to have more activities and things that we're catering to a majority, a large group of people that are here in Anacortes and want to stay. Those dollars are spent, yes, and we want that. So finding a way to not only recognize those that struggle with it, That mitigation efforts, whether it's panels, whether it's more sounding, I love that you guys are working so hard to try to find solutions. Let's continue that. I'm not sure I would recommend at this point shutting down The pickleball court. I'm not an advocate of that at all. You know, maybe, you know, just enforcing the eight to eight as we look simultaneously for another place that we can do some additional things. And your help. No, thank you, please. Your help. Your help as pickleball aficionados to help keep us within the lines. It's going to be crucial. So I want to make sure that we're saying that park studies, our priorities, you know, again, my thing to all of you is I applaud you for the exercise that you're getting and building this sense of community. Help us find another way that we can have more courts because we're going to need it. But yet at the same time, recognizing there's some people who don't you know, want to do pickleball. But I'm a firm advocate for those seasoned individuals finding activities, sports, and an outlet for exercise. So I applaud you for bringing that on. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Young. Mayor Walters. Ms. Malta.

Thank you. So I appreciate all of the comments and the multigenerationality of Pickleball and the sociability as we keep hearing. Those are two huge things in longevity and health and quality of life. I'm also very sympathetic to the neighbors who are listening and dealing with the outcomes of of a park that was designed for a neighborhood and it's wonderful that people want to come from friday harbor and oak harbor and mount vernon this park simply was not designed for that level of usage so we need to come up with another spot and we need to do it soon because whether or not the hours are reduced which i think for the people to be able to enjoy their homes it doesn't they need to be able to go outside when it's nice too and have peaceful enjoyment of the homes that they've lived in for years. And they move there knowing that there was an airport. But it's a lot. It's almost, it's just, I really sympathize with the neighbors also. So I would be, I am willing to discuss some kind of a reduction in hours. I also think enforcement is important important, but we have to do something because this is an untenable situation and we have to do something to change it and try to ameliorate it a little bit. and try to move forward and come up with another place, whether it's a pole building built in a park somewhere or on a concrete thing. People raise money for things all the time. The Parks Foundation is willing to help. They've clearly spent tens of thousands of dollars already. I support pickleball, but I also support people having peaceful enjoyment of their homes. So I've let the discussion continue.

Thank you, Ms. Moulton.

Mayor Walters.

Ms. Colleen McGrath.

Thank you. So thank you all for coming. This has been a lively discussion, and I have not played pickleball yet, but it sure seems like a fun sport. I think the Parks Department is looking for some direction about where to go after this. Enforcement is number one from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and the rules. I think that Limiting it or shutting it down for three days doesn't make sense to me because of the fact that we don't know what days make sense for the neighbors. All you're going to do is add pressure on those four days that they're open. It just doesn't quite make sense at this point. So enforcement, what has not been discussed much but was in a lot of our written comment was encouraging noise-reducing equipment, whether it's balls or the paddles. Is that what they're called? So I think that that should be whether it's – I don't know. There was a couple of folks who talked about that they were – kind of lead, led the organization. I don't know about the technology of that, if it was, if it's detrimental, but if that is one of the, the items of the popping sound, please, I think that that should be a further discussion. Um, and then ultimately, uh, neighborhood park. Everyone should be able to enjoy being in their home, whether it's the sound, whether it's excessive people parking in their neighborhoods. Ultimately, it comes down to the fact that this is a very popular sport. We don't have a lot of options. We have four courts in Skyline. That is an HOA. We have a court in San Juan Passage. That is an HOA. We need to have more public citywide courts that are available to the community. So I think that we need to make sure that we go talk to the school district. If they've got property, talk to the churches. Thank you, Ms. Martin from the planning commission of bringing that to our attention. I think wherever we go, I'm sure there's going to be neighbors that are going to be concerned after hearing these challenges, but also if we can Share spread the pressure or ease the pressure across the communities. I mean, I don't necessarily I'm not necessarily in favor of closing down the pickleball court when we get other pickleball courts up and running because it's still a community neighborhood and it sounds like there are neighbors nearby that would enjoy continuing to play at their local location. But we've got to do something. So hopefully we can partner with some nonprofits or Kiwanis or Rotary or some of you folks to be able to fundraise because the challenge is we don't have a lot of money. I don't know if you've been here in November, December, but we keep having to do cuts. But this seems really important. I loved hearing about the fact that it's social. You're meeting people. It also is great for economic development. We're always talking about increasing sales tax. So thank you for going out to our restaurants and spending money here. I think that's a really important component. So we've got to figure out where we come up with a plan of how we can have more courts throughout the community.

Thank you, Ms. Cooley-McGrath.

Mayor Walters?

Ms. Hunt.

I first just want to say how lovely it is to be on a council that, when faced with something like this, doesn't punt and say, let's do a site visit. That's how it would have done it in the old days. Nothing I'm about to say is new. It's all been raised by somebody else here. But I think that Pickleball, in its great popularity, has outgrown, as people have said, a neighborhood park. So whether or not we make some tweaks to where it is right now, and I agree we will still like to be able to play pickleball there. The neighbors should have a neighborhood pickleball spot. We need to have a plan with a timeline for finding alternative locations. I think that's maybe on the city. I think we also need to have people who want to play pickleball raise a bunch of money. That's why we have a skate park, because skaters raise that money. And I think if we work together that way, we can come up with something that will be able to accommodate the increasing popularity of that sport, which is only going to grow. so i would like us to be able to whether it's the parks committee or the parks commission come up with some sort of timeline to give the neighbors as mr fantini said with the port facility hey 12 months from now we will have a plan it's not just going to go on forever thank you miss hunt mayor wilters mr kerr

Um, yeah, I, from my perspective, this is, um, again, something that I don't think we could have anticipated. I mean, people who were early on pickleball probably saw it coming, but I, I mean, I started working with an employee at my job who started the first day I was there. It was all about pickleball and it's never been anything but pickleball sense. And I saw the passion and I've heard about the community development and the health aspects of it. So, um, I think it's no surprise that this has come to Anacortes and people love it. And to echo comments up here, I think it is something that has gotten much bigger than a community park. And it's, we need to, we need to use this as a wake up call to get a larger facility or facilities and keep people here spending their money. And again, give relief to neighbors that probably didn't anticipate that this much love for the sport and their area. Um, Throwing out the gauntlet, too. If the skaters can raise money and have a skate park, come on, pickleballers. I know there's a lot more money out here to support this drive. And I think the city has some responsibilities to kind of create that vision and present that. As far as time, I like the idea of timelines in terms of getting this addressed. I definitely think enforcement is huge and that's something everyone can get behind. Because again, I don't think it's people in this room who are out there desecrating the area intentionally. You really value it. You don't want to see changes made to it unless there's some grand option other than this. Um, and so I think, yeah, it's probably a combination of, I would take back to the parks department and to the city. We need to enforce this, right? So if it's not this group and there's people out there playing loud music or breaking bottles, um, I don't care who it is yelling F words at each other. That's not appropriate. But if we have codes and things to, to, to make sure that the good people get the opportunities to do what they want to do, we need to enforce those. That's, that's huge for me. Um, but I, again, I think that, this is a great opportunity to expand. I know that former mayor Garrett talked about a sports facility out by the skate park, and that was a huge thing. And we ran into lack of funding. There were a lot of people that were going to contribute. So I think if someone can coalesce around this idea and having grander vision with not just this activity, but others, um, I think maybe this is the wake up call we need for that. But again, I do have a lot of sympathy for the neighbors as well, who probably didn't envision this when they moved there. And, uh, Everybody has a different level of tolerance for sound. So I would just encourage everyone to be respectful of each other. And I think that'll make this situation more tenable while we get to a better solution. But those are just a few thoughts.

Mayor Walters. Thank you, Mr. Currier. Mr. McDougall.

I agree with basically like my fellow council members have made a lot of really good points. I very much agree with basically the urgency of like, let's treat this as a, well, it's a problem that needs to be solved and let's treat it also as a strategic opportunity. The growth of Pickleball is like clearly impactful. And the fact that it's attracting people from like all over from the islands, from the county, This is something where we should look for an opportunity for going larger than four courts and doing it in the business or the core of the city where basically it can have the most economic impact as well. As we talk about our... the city's sort of financial situation, our key constraint is we're actually really limited as to our revenue streams. We don't have a lot of flexibility for our revenue streams. The one that is most flexible that we sort of have the most control over is sales tax. And if we generate economic development in the downtown core via whatever activity, but pickleball clearly could be a very impactful activity. This becomes like basically mutually sort of enforcing cycle. Like I could see it becoming really powerful, but it's kind of chicken and egg because we don't have that revenue stream. So, you know, we have a skate park that came because of donors. And if... we can if the community can come up with a way to get something funded i know that there's a lot of underutilized um space in the city's core they're like there's five dots on there there's probably could be 30 dots if uh you know if we sort of look for creative i guess locations so that's where i'm at with that thank you and thank you all for coming thank you mr mcdougall

Mayor Walters. Mr. Fantini.

I did a little quick math because I definitely feel like, yes, we need a solution to this and pivoting our energy towards finding that solution. And I think Mr. Lunsford said there was a recent cost put together by a city, I can't remember which, to do four courts that was 400,000.

Arlington, five courts, 400,000.

500,000. And Mr. McCoy said we got 1,700 pickleball players. That's $235 a piece. That's I mean, but realistically, that's like it's not we're not building a multimillion dollar building. We're building pickleball courts. And clearly there's a lot of passion out here. I would like to see our energy go towards that. But to Mrs. Hunt's point, to Miss Hunt's point, I think that having a deadline is really, really important for that.

All right, thank you all. I've heard from everybody at this point. If you want to continue discussion, we can do that. Otherwise, we can take this back and noodle over it some more. Mr. Lunsford is particularly looking forward to that. With respect to enforcement, it sounds like several of you feel strongly about that. I think we can make that happen, but there will be trade-offs. As an example, only APD can write a ticket. And they've got to prioritize more serious cases at the time at which they're called out. So there are going to be some significant constraints with respect to enforcement on that. But we will talk about that and come back to you. We will convey to you what we are able to reasonably achieve there.

Mayor Walters?

Mr. Currier.

Is this something that we could set up a work session on looking at economic development in general and maybe how sports and recreation could tie to that so we could have a more free-flowing conversation in that kind of setting? The public could be there and listen and hear and come back to us with ideas. We wouldn't make any policy decisions during that time. But we would have an opportunity to just sit here and talk to each other in a different way than we can up here at the dais. And I just think maybe with this type of issue, it could be beneficial.

Yeah, we can do that. We can set that up at some time in the future after some prep work. I think also setting aside Pickleball exclusively, Mr. Wetcher's comments are very well taken. Our community needs both present and future are definitely going to include indoor recreation. We were only short $15 million for that facility, but you can leave your checks at the door, and we will explore some of those things and put together some materials for you to prepare for a study session, if that's counsel's desire. Okay, we will return with a study session on this at some point in the future. We'll keep it moving and try to make some progress very near term. Council, anything else at this point? All right then, at this time, we are going to go into a closed session for the purpose of collective bargaining topics. Ms. Swetnam, Ms. Moyle, and Ms. Peck will attend in addition to council members and the mayor. We'll be in that session for the purpose of review of collective bargaining topics. RCW 4230-140, subsection 4B, for at least 15 minutes, and we'll let you know for longer. Thank you.

As of 855 PM the city council meeting of 26 may is adjourned, thank you.