Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Parks Pickleball topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commission approves Civic Celebration’s pickleball use, narrows hours to 8 a.m.–noon
Summary
The Franklin City Parks Commission approved use of Lions Legend Park pickleball courts by the Franklin Civic Celebration on July 3, setting the event hours at 8 a.m.–noon after debate over whether it would be a tournament, concerns about past organization, and logistics including parking and court locking.
John Bergner, chairman of the Franklin Civic Celebration, asked the Parks Commission on June 8 to revise the group’s July 3 reservation for the Lions Legend Park pickleball courts to run from 8 a.m. to noon instead of the posted 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. "My name is John Bergner and I am chairman of the Franklin Civic Celebration," Bergner said, describing the event as free, limited to adults and intended as open play rather than a prize or cash tournament.
Commissioners questioned how the event would be organized and supervised, noting problems with a prior tournament that an attendee described as "a disaster" with disorganized registration and mismatched age divisions. Commissioners also asked whether the recreation department needed to manage registration, whether insurance or waivers would be required, and what assistance DPW would provide—specifically locking courts after the morning play to keep them closed during fireworks.
Bergner told the commission the Civic Celebration would advertise the open-play format on the festival calendar and in the newsletter, sign people up the morning of the event and have volunteers assist with court organization. He said there would be no entry fee, no awards requiring formal prizes or payouts, and that participants could bring food and non-commercial beverages. He also said the civic group would ask DPW to lock the courts at the end of the event.
After discussion about parking, whether to reserve some courts for open play and whether to require waivers, a commissioner moved to approve the Civic Celebration’s request for use of the courts from 8 a.m. to noon and asked the organizer to report back at the next meeting on how the event went. The motion carried.
The commission did not record formal vote tallies in the meeting transcript; members asked the Civic Celebration to return to the commission after the event to report outcomes and any problems.
The approval allows the Civic Celebration to stage the open-play pickleball activity on the morning of July 3; festival activities on the grounds, including rides, are scheduled to begin at noon. The commission emphasized that if outside organizers run more formal tournaments in future years, they should coordinate with the recreation department and provide insurance or waivers as required.
