Rob Burns had been living in his Okotoks home for two decades before the courts next to his house were converted to pickleball courts.“The hard ball and a hard paddle makes a really irritating noise. People don’t understand how irritating the pitch of it is and when you get 20 of them out there, it’s pretty noisy,” Burns said.The surging demand for court space combined with the noise has left the town in a bit of a pickle.
“I’m glad to see that they’re going to do something. Get rid of it hopefully by next year,” Burns said. “The neighbourhood was happy to be heard. They felt it was a good balance. The neighbourhood wasn’t about get rid of pickleball. It was give us a bit of a balance for quality of life. It was going from eight in the morning until nine or 10 o’clock at night,” Thorn said.
“We are really excited about the new facility. We are working with our local Okotoks pickleball club,” Thorn said.