Essex County Is Moving Pickleball Courts At Brookdale Park

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — There’s no denying that pickleball is an up-and-coming sport in New Jersey, including Essex County, where there are plans to eventually have courts at five county-run parks. But the idiosyncratic “tock-tock” of paddles that comes with the game isn’t music to the ears of everyone, it seems.

On Thursday, county officials announced plans to move the pickleball courts at Brookdale Park, which is located in Montclair and Bloomfield.

The relocation of the courts is part of a $2.15 million upgrade project, which is expected to be finished by the end of the year.

According to a statement from county officials, when the county’s first pickleball courts were introduced to the tennis facility at Brookdale Park in 2019 – a milestone that several community leaders cheered – they were located in a section of the complex that was close to the homes on Grandview Place.

When some residents complained about the noise created by the plastic pickleballs bouncing off wooden rackets, Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr. suggested the pickleball courts could be moved closer to the clubhouse the next time improvements were made at the complex.

That time has arrived, county officials said.

The latest upgrade plan for Brookdale Park includes resurfacing the tennis courts in the complex, relocating the pickleball courts next to the clubhouse and increasing the number from six to eight and reducing the number of tennis courts from nine to eight, and installing new fencing, netting and sports lighting.

Barreto Dowd Landscape Architecture and Site Planning from Howell was awarded a professional contract for $80,005 to design the improvements. ZN Construction LLC from Saddle Brook was awarded a publicly bid contract for $2,077,000 to perform the construction work.

The project is being funded by grants from the Essex County Recreation and Open Space Trust Fund and the American Rescue Plan, officials said.

“The improvements we are doing at the tennis facility will relocate the pickleball courts so they are further away from residential homes and less disruptive to the calm of the neighborhood,” DiVincenzo said.

The pickleball courts in Essex County Brookdale Park were the first ones created in the Essex County Parks System. Courts have since been added at the Althea Gibson Tennis Complex in Essex County Branch Brook Park and Essex Grover Cleveland Park.

There are plans to create more pickleball courts in Verona Park, which is striped for both tennis and pickleball, and Glenfield Park in Montclair, officials said.

• See Related: Pickleball Courts, Tennis Upgrades At Grover Cleveland Park

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