By Gretchen Webster
WESTPORT — A Parks and Recreation Commission meeting Wednesday to hear public comments on the Longshore Park Capital Improvement Plan turned into an athletic match of sorts, as pickleball enthusiasts traded volleys with golfers over which sport should win priority in the plan.
“This month there were more pickleball players than golfers in the US,” said Peter Krieger, president of the Westport Pickleball Association, drawing groans from some golfers at the Town Hall meeting.
With only two public pickleball courts in Westport, “there’s definitely a great need,” he said.
But golfers have been waiting much longer for improved facilities than pickleball players, countered Pat Norton, who was a member of the Westport Golf Advisory Commission for 10 years.
“Most of us recognize that what exists here today is a very poor excuse for a golf facility in a town like Westport,” she said of the Longshore Golf Course. “There are 36,000 rounds of golf played here each year.”
The tension between the two sides was evident after the timetable for the improvement plan was explained to approximately 30 people attending the meeting by Gary Sorge of Santec, the company hired to draw up the plan.
Improvements to the golf course would be undertaken in years one and two of the 10-year plan, he said, with plans to build additional pickleball courts in years 3 and 4.
Various parts of the project will be scheduled in a particular order to minimize costs, Sorge added, especially when a facility has to be moved or remodeled before the next project can move forward.
Golfers had differing opinions about the future of the golf clubhouse, which would be moved under the current version of the capital plan. As they had at a December meeting, some said moving the clubhouse is a good idea, while others feel it is not.
Michael Ryan, managing partner of the Inn at Longshore, said he would like to see the second floor of the proposed golf clubhouse used as additional rooms for the inn, which would generate revenue for the town. Again, some at the meeting liked that suggestion, others did not.
There are only 12 rooms in Longshore Inn, Ryan said, and that’s not enough for many potential corporate and private clients. “Rooms with a water view are an advantage. The cost wouldn’t be that much – you’re building a second floor anyway.”
Chris Tait, a Representative Town Meeting member from District 1, agreed. He cautioned that with significant expenses in the town’s fiscal forecast — including the prospect of building a new school — it might be challenging to fund all the projects in the Longshore plan.
“A lot is coming down the pike,” Tait said about pressures on town spending. “If there is some synergy for the inn to build rooms [above the clubhouse]we should consider it… It’s a balancing act.”
But others, including golfer Mike Elliott, who said he was married at the Inn at Longshore, said the clubhouse needs a pub and not hotel rooms. “The golf facilities are disgusting,” he said.
At the start of the meeting, Sorge presented an overview of the plan, including costs and proposed schedule for individual projects envisioned in the plans.
The Parks and Recreation Commission, beginning early last year, has reviewed the improvement plan at a series of meetings, along with an online survey and open houses.
Commission Chairman David Floyd said the panel expects to vote on the final plan at a Feb. 18 meetings.
To view details of the Longshore Park Capital Improvement Plan, including survey results and public presentations, click on the plan website.
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Freelance writer Gretchen Webster, a Fairfield County journalist and journalism teacher for many years, was editor of the Fairfield Minuteman newspaper for 10 years and currently teaches journalism at Southern Connecticut State University.