Satiating demand for pickleball in Oak Harbor may come at the cost of some of the city’s other recreational amenities.

Ongoing discussions about adding pickleball courts in the city continued at a Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission meeting on Sept. 8. Building eight new courts as planned may take years to complete, but in the interim, an existing basketball court could be converted into three pickleball courts at either Fort Nugent or Windjammer Park.

Darin Cook, president of the Whidbey Pickleball Association, spoke at the meeting and then to the News-Times on Sunday. As grateful as he is for the courts Oak Harbor currently offers and the ones on the horizon, Cook felt more could be done to help picklers in the city.

“We do have a place to play, but it’s not provided by the city,” he explained. “So a group of us got together and said, ‘Look, how do we change this? How do we better advocate for ourselves and keep focused on what we want and deliver the message?’ And so that’s when we got our start.”

Although the Whidbey Pickleball Association began in June, the group is already composed of at least 160 members, Cook said. The group represents an organized effort to bring more courts to Oak Harbor and support the sport’s growth locally.

Cook explained on Sunday that outdoor picklers are limited to just four courts on Oak Harbor School District property at Rotary Park near North Whidbey Middle School, which Cook said would be insufficient even if they were all of high quality. Two are in poor condition, posing a risk of injury to players.

Understanding the desire for more pickleball courts is easy enough. Deciding where they would go is another story.

Oak Harbor City Council narrowly approved to reallocate $50,000 to refurbishing the Rotary Park courts in 2022 but the plan fell through. Last year, the council settled on architects to build eight courts in either Sumner or Fort Nugent Park, a $78,100 project the city has so far been unsuccessful securing grant funding for.

With the timeline for eight new courts uncertain, Cook worries the city’s urgency to provide courts is lacking. Converting a basketball court into three pickleball courts while the city awaits movement on the eight-court front, he told the News-Times, would be faster, cost less and accomplish more than simply waiting for the eight-court project to finish. Cook believes this to be a fair resolution.

“There’s zero places to play pickleball on Parks and Rec land and there are five parks you can play basketball at,” he said plainly.

But Cook also admitted the pickleball community has not always been adequately organized — taking some responsibility for slow progress bringing more courts to the area — and made it clear he did not want to cause a rift with the basketball community.

“I don’t want to make it us versus them, that’s not what it’s about,” he said. “It’s just that we’ve been working at this — the pickleball community — for a long time, 12-plus years off and on.”

Picklers provided public comment at the recent meeting and commissioners discussed the possibility of court conversions at length. Ultimately, commissioners unanimously passed a motion to explore converting the Fort Nugent basketball court into three pickleball courts, complete with permanent poles and lining. Cost estimates for such a project could be brought to a workshop in October.

Justin Santos, a basketball player and enthusiast, was not aware of this decision until recently. As an admin for the Whidbey Island Basketball Facebook group — comprised of 738 members —and responsible for an annual basketball tournament played at Windjammer Park, he wants to ensure all sides are represented in the matter.

Santos trusts city officials in this process and understands the pickleball community’s request. Still, he is encouraging others in the basketball community to attend Oak Harbor City Council’s meeting on Tuesday to provide public comments.

“We would like to have a voice so we don’t create division,” Santos said. “We’re willing to listen and provide any information on what the basketball community wants.”

Further input from both sides is expected to be given during Tuesday’s meeting, after press time.