Marina Blatt reports from the Oak Harbor City Council meeting of Tue., Feb. 3, 2026 for the Whidbey News-Times. Read the whole story.
Summary by Perplexity AI
The Oak Harbor City Council held a workshop to consider solutions to the community’s longstanding shortage of pickleball courts. Parks and Recreation Director Brian Smith presented three options: creating four temporary courts split between existing tennis and basketball courts, converting one tennis court at Sumner Park into four permanent pickleball courts, or pursuing an eight-court complex at Fort Nugent Park funded by a state grant. Councilmembers discussed impacts on tennis and basketball, dual-use courts, and funding partnerships with the school district and community. While no formal decision was made, the unofficial direction favored short-term conversions while still seeking the larger Fort Nugent project.
They Said It
Building the eight-court complex at Fort Nugent Park wouldn’t interfere with other sports. However, if the council waits and the city doesn’t win that grant, pickleball players won’t be happy, Councilmember Bryan Stucky acknowledged, calling it a “mostly no-win scenario.” He noted that he may want to support the decision to convert courts at Fort Nugent with data on usage, adding that he would consider standing out there with a clicker if he must.
Councilmember Barbara Armes wondered if city officials could work with the Oak Harbor School District, which owns Rotary Park, to find more times to open their pickleball courts so the city could spend less money on converting courts into pickleball. [Mayor Ronnie] Wright suggested the alternative that the city could fund up to $50,000 to convert a tennis court at Sumner Park into four pickleball courts and ask community members to pitch in for the rest. This was met with approval from Armes.
There was a separate discussion led by Councilmember Eric Marshall to convert both of the tennis courts at Sumner Park into multi-use courts, allowing for six or more pickleball courts to exist.
While the council members didn’t reach an official consensus, Councilmember Sandi Peterson stressed urgency for the situation.
“We have people driving from our county to another county to do pickleball. I have people who visit here from Texas and say, ‘What, you don’t have pickleball?’” Peterson said, backing up her support for converting one of the two tennis courts at Sumner Park into four pickleball courts. “It’s embarrassing to me that we are not doing something that a lot of people want.”
Armes noted that the city was denied the grant for the courts previously, saying it isn’t the council that is making the process slow.
