Kam Morris

TO: Saugatuck City Hall Clerk and Saugatuck Parks and Public Works FROM: Kam Morris RE: Village Square plans for revamping tennis court DATE: February 28th 2026 Dear City Hall Personnel and Parks and Public Works Committee I have watched with interest all of the changes to the town square over the years. Restrooms in the middle of Main Street, more recently the removal of all the rhododendrons and most all of the other plantings from the south west quadrant, quite barren now in comparison to the past, but probably a lot less costly to maintain. Then the remodeled playground structure, all very nice, except possibly for the banging musical devices that can often be heard at the house even above the joyous carefree laughing of the children having fun. Probably 20 or so years back, we started being woken up early in the am by the steady thwack, thwack, thwack, of pickle ball matches. It took awhile to figure out it wasn’t Ron doing some project down at the Hardware store, but some new sport! It gets to the point where you have to shut windows and turn on the AC, which seems to defeat the whole purpose of trying to keep a historic tree shaded house as eco-friendly as possible. Possibly instead of going with Councils thoughts of Concept 5 and covering up more green space with a larger expanse of two concrete surfaces, and with the eventuality of the tennis court turning into a second pickle ball court, it only takes some stipes on the ground, consider me biased but the thought of doubling the incessant thwack, thwack, thwack of pickle ball is not something to look forward to, my recommendation would be for Concept 1. Back when I was in High School, Saugatuck supported a tennis team, we had a few weeks of tennis in the spring during gym class also. I might be mistaken but I think they may now teach pickle ball in gym class but no longer tennis? If council is looking for more pickle ball courts, maybe transition a few of the tennis courts, as possibly they are not getting as much use as in the past? The park is in the Historic District and as we are a Tree City in long standing, minimizing concrete surfaces always seems to be a plus, I would even go so far as to suggest not adding the proposed aprons around either the tennis/pickle ball court or the basketball court. Additionally, in one of the earlier proposals it included a materials list, one of the items being 400 plus feet of chain link fence to surround the courts, I have heard the fencing option has been removed and hope that is the case. Sincerely, Kam Morris