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Burbank pickleball enthusiasts want permanent courts at Maxam Memorial Park

Amy Phelps and her daughter Alyssa tap pickleball paddles with Janet Beardsley and Dominic Salvatore, 13, after their pick-up game on the tennis court at Larry Maxam Park on Tuesday, October 17, 2017. Local pickleball enthusiasts are hoping to have the courts converted into full-time pickleball courts.
(Tim Berger / Burbank Leader)
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More than 40 local pickleball players attended a Burbank Parks and Recreation meeting on Thursday to ask board members to bring a more permanent facility for enthusiasts of the sport.

Erin Barrows, a recreation services manager for the city, gave an update on the pilot pickleball program at Larry Maxam Memorial Park, where the city allowed pickleball players to paint permanent pickleball court lines on the tennis courts.

However, many Burbank residents and even former City Manager Robert “Bud” Ovrom have been pushing the city to convert the two tennis courts at Maxam into four pickleball courts.

“Introducing an active family activity [to Maxam Park] is really going to benefit the park and benefit the neighborhood,” Ovrom said. “I think it’ll be an attribute that you’ll always be proud that you were a part of.”

Jim Sartoris, a Burbank resident and former athletic director at Glendale Community College, said the sport keeps him and many others around his age young and active. He added that it serves as a social mechanism, where older residents can talk with and play against a younger generation.

“We’ve suddenly found an activity and a sport that we can compete in and socialize with others with the same frame of mind as far as loving to get out, exercise and play,” Sartoris said.

Aaron Cohen, a John Burroughs High School student, said he and his friends have been playing pickleball at Maxam for the last two months, mostly on the weekends.

Most of the avid pickleball players at Maxam typically play from 8 a.m. to noon on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and have to build up and tear down the pickleball nets used for the game.

Cohen said it would help if there were permanent nets at the park so he and his friends could play in the evenings.

“To fulfill our desires to play, I think it would be great to put permanent nets up,” he said.

Though many of the board members said they liked the idea of having permanent pickleball courts in the city, they all said the looming budget deficit in the city is forcing many city departments, including the Parks and Recreation Department, to make tough decisions.

The pilot program at Maxam Park started in June and has been a successful program so far, with about 20 people playing pickleball at the park during their scheduled days.

However, Barrows said city officials are opting to reevaluate the program around December or January to determine if it should continue.

In terms of converting the tennis courts into pickleball courts, Barrows said it could cost about $5,000 to purchase and install the nets and other hardware needed.

“This is a wonderful problem to have — to have more people interested in our programs and our parks and fields than we can handle,” board member Barry Gussow said. “That being said, we still do have, unfortunately, that budget crisis.”

Ovrom told board members that he and other pickleball enthusiasts are willing to work with the city to find a solution, which could involve raising money to pay for the equipment.

anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com

Twitter: @acocarpio

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