Pickleball funds shifted to road repairs

The hotly contested issue of building six new pickleball courts at Pequitside Farm, which narrowly passed at the opening session of Annual Town Meeting, was postponed indefinitely after more than 470 residents turned out for a reconsideration vote held on Monday, May 19.

Immediately after, residents supported a Finance Committee recommendation to allocate the $650,000 that had been approved for the pickleball courts to road repairs, increasing the amount of local supplemental funds for that purpose to $818,000.

The reconsideration vote required a two-thirds majority and the hand-counted tally just barely cleared that hurdle with 316 in favor of reconsideration and 156 opposed.

Following the vote, Select Board Chair Mike Loughran submitted a new amendment calling for a new site study for pickleball courts not to include Pequitside Farm. Loughran apologized for not calling for public meetings or including the residents of Sumner Street in the conversation.

The Select Board could still revive the proposal and either submit a new plan at a projected special town meeting this fall or at the next Annual Town Meeting in May of 2026. However, the use of funds that had been allocated from free cash for FY26 can no longer be used for that purpose with the entire $650,000 now earmarked for road repairs. Loughran had previously mentioned that the Select Board could consider using board-controlled mitigation funds to help pay for the new courts.

The original vote to approve the courts at last Monday’s session of town meeting was very close with 120 in favor and 109 opposed. The latter group included abutters to Pequitside Farm and many residents of Sumner Street, who claimed they were not properly notified of the proposed article. They also cited noise factors and the potential that the courts would upset the tranquil nature of the open space at Pequitside. Others felt the $650,000 would be better spent in other ways, such as roadway improvements or hiring more police officers.

At the second session of town meeting on Wednesday, May 14, Sumner Street resident Gary Kaplan petitioned newly elected Town Moderator Sal Salvatori for a reconsideration vote, citing the concerns outlined above as well as impacts to traffic and parking.

Salvatori said town bylaws stipulate that once a reconsideration article is proposed, the moderator must stop any votes on the issue and postpone it to the next session of town meeting, or at least 36 hours after the current session.

Loughran’s amendment indicated that the Select Board would consider other sites, hold public meetings, and confer with other boards such as Canton Parks & Recreation and the Conservation Commission, but it did not reference any plans to return the decision to town meeting voters.

In the meantime, the School Department has been offering use of some of the CHS tennis courts for pickleball, although the courts are heavily used in the months of March through June, when the boys and girls tennis teams are in season.

In other news from Annual Town Meeting:

* Monday’s session was delayed for approximately 30 minutes due to the number of people still waiting in line to register as of 7 p.m. When the meeting opened at 7:30 p.m., it was announced that 476 residents had registered to attend the session.

* Voters authorized an additional $20,000 from free cash reserves to the Bylaw Modernization Study Committee, supplementing the $22,000 appropriated at the 2024 town meeting. The committee wants to hire a company to codify the town’s bylaws in an accessible and transparent fashion.

* Voters authorized an annual increase in the amount of exemptions for residents who served in the military. A state law signed in 2024 allows qualifying veterans to apply for an additional $400 abatement on their primary property with additional abatements for disabled veterans. The Finance Committee estimated that a total of approximately $73,000 will be abated for FY26 with the passage of this act.

* Without any opposition, town meeting voters approved a $143.7 million town budget for FY26 covering municipal and school operations as well as water-sewer and rink enterprise accounts and fixed costs.

* Salvatori announced that any resident wishing to serve on any town board or committee should submit a letter of interest to him at moderator@town.canton.ma.us.

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Posted by Mike Berger on May 23 2025. Filed under News, Town Government. Both comments and pings are currently closed.