Seattle Metro Pickleball Association
In June, we asked you to participate in a public forum about Kirkland’s Parks Department upcoming Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces (PROS) plan update.
The results are in and you did an amazing job. Check out the results here: https://www.kirklandwa.gov/files/sharedassets/public/parks-amp-comm-services/park-planning/pdfs/pros-plan-1st-public-forum-presentation.pdf
Some of you also participated in focus groups. We haven’t heard any official results from these, but we do know that at most focus groups had multiple pickleball advocates.
A large blue human-sized butterfly will be visiting Kirkland Parks to collect your stories and feedback. The butterfly will make her first appearance out of the cocoon at the Juanita Friday Market from 3 to 5pm on July 9, 2021. Find the butterfly and tell it that Kirkland needs more indoor and outdoor pickleball facilities.
More opportunities to catch the butterfly will be posted in the future on Kirkland’s PROS web page.
Please tell your friends.
If you reside in Lake Forest Park and want to help promote the development of pickleball within the city, here is your chance.
The City seeks applicants for its Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, which is responsible for advising the City Council and Mayor on parks and recreation issues, including park master planning, recreation program evaluation, and park comprehensive planning. All board member terms are three years and members are limited to two consecutive full-term appointments. Application are being accepted through July 6, 2021.
Start here.
Anjali Myer, Director of Parks, Recreation and Facilities for the City of Sammamish, will join Sammamish Seniors for a Coffee talk on Wednesday June 30th at 11am. Myer has been with the City since 2008.
You are invited to bring your questions. Here is your chance to thank the Parks department for supporting pickleball and ask ask questions about future plans for adding (indoor and outdoor) courts and providing semi-permanent pickleball nets on the outdoor courts.
Contact SammamishSeniors@gmail.com now for the zoom link.
This year, the City of Kirkland is updating its Parks, Recreation and Open Space (PROS) Plan which is a six-year guide and strategic plan for managing and enhancing park and recreation services. The PROS Plan establishes a path forward for providing high quality, community-driven parks, trails, open spaces and recreational opportunities to benefit Kirkland community members and visitors. This planning process provides a vision for where the parks can grow, how programs can expand, what improvements facilities need and ways to better serve the community. Let’s make sure the plan includes pickleball.
Kirkland has hired Greenplay to ask for your input regarding this plan. Greenplay will host a Public Forum on June 17th from 6:30 to 8:00pm.
At the public forum, you will have the opportunity to take part in polls, ask questions in the chat room and participate in a question-and-answer period. The input received during this public forum as well as through focus groups, interviews and survey opportunities will be used to determine the priorities for Kirkland’s recreational facilities and activities, what funding sources may be available, potential partnerships, and how best to support the recreational needs of the community. Let’s seize this opportunity to ask for more indoor and outdoor pickleball facilities.
Register today at https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pVX3kMQYTgm6Yg28hqXeyg and tell all your pickleball friends who live, work or play in Kirkland to register and attend as well.
See you online on June17th!
The City of Lynnwood updates its Parks, Arts, Recreation and Conservation Plan once every six years to ensure that programs, services, and recreation facilities are meeting the needs of community member.
They would like to know what you think. So, if you live, work or play in Lynnwood, take their Community Recreation Needs Survey and ask for more indoor and outdoor pickleball.
The city is already planning to add 6 pickleball courts at the South Lynnwood Park as part of their current renovation project. Please tell them that is a very good idea. And feel free to ask for more indoor and outdoor pickleball play opportunities.
Kirkland Parks Department has started work on its next comprehensive “Park, Recreation, and Open Spaces Plan“. This 6-year plan will provide a vision for the continuation of high-quality recreation opportunities to benefit the residents of and visitors to Kirkland.
We need to make sure the Parks Department knows that pickleball players are grateful for the wonderful courts it created in 2019 at Everest Park and that we would love to see even more pickleball courts in Kirkland.
Please email Mary Gardocki mgardocki@kirklandwa.gov and cc: eParks@kirklandwa.gov and let her know:
Make the message your own:
If email is not your thing, you can call Mary Gardocki and leave her a voicemail at (425) 587-3311.
In the next few months, expect the Kirkland Parks department to conduct an extensive community involvement effort including focus groups, meetings with key stakeholders, neighborhood and community-wide public meetings, surveys, website, and so on.
We will need to make sure we participate in those as well. If you spot one of those, please report it to info@seattlemetropickleball.com so we can spread the word around.
Let’s not wait for community involvement effort to start. Start emailing the Kirkland Parks Department now.
ACTION ALERT
The Bellevue City Council is currently seeking candidates for its Parks & Community Services board.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we had a pickleball player on this board? If you are interested or you know a pickleball player who would be interested in this position, please apply online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2021BoardComm. Applications are due by 5 p.m., Monday, April 19, 2021.
ACTION ALERT
The City of Mountlake Terrace is working on a new Master Plan for its parks and open spaces that will will guide recreation and park improvements for the coming 20 years. City staff and the project team will incorporate feedback from their online open house into a draft plan for Recreation & Park Advisory Commission review and comment by mid-2021. The City Council will review and approve the final plan by the end of 2021.
Please visit their online open house and ask them to plan for more pickleball opportunities.
Make sure you ask them to add lines for 10 pickleball courts on the existing tennis courts at the Evergreen Playfield Complex.
Feel free to ask for indoor pickleball as well. Tell them that asking pickleball players to play on a racquetball court (the current indoor situation) is like asking football layers to play on a basketball court.
And of course, ask for whatever else you’d like.
The open house closes on April 28. But why wait? Do it now!