During the citizen comments portion of the July 6 Northville City Council meeting, Mayor Brian Turnbull figured he knew what Doris Booth was going to ask about.
Nick Maiz
Mayor Turnbull running the July 6 meeting by following the agenda for the day.“I think I know what Doris Booth is going to talk about,” Turnbull said. “Doris, I think you would like to talk about pickleball.”
The July 6 meeting began, as it always does, with citizen comments. And Booth was ready for her turn.
Northville citizen Booth asked if there could be pickleball lines drawn on the tennis courts at Fish Hatchery Park.
“There’s a significant number of Northville residents that would like to play pickleball at the Fish Hatchery,” Booth said. “We would like to request some lines to be drawn at the pickleball courts.”
Mark Gasche, the director of Northville Parks and Recreation, said that he didn’t believe there is a large following for pickleball in Northville based on the statistics he and his staff collected.
“Last year in tennis, just in our lesson program, we had 492 participants, 379 of those were Northville residents,” Gasche said. “In comparison, we had 144 participants in our pickleball clinic, 98 of them were Northville residents.”
Since COVID-19 caused the indoor pickleball facilities in Northville to close, Gasche said that they will talk about the possibility of painting pickleball lines at Fish Hatchery Park at the next Parks and Recreation board meeting on July 22.
Another question during the citizen comments was asked by Luci Klinkhamer, and she said she wanted to know when the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) discussion will make the city council’s agenda. Turnbull said that would be on the July 20 meeting agenda.
City Council also talked about potential social districts in Northville to follow the new bill put into law on July 1, House Bill #5781. They also took time to applaud those involved in purchasing a new variable speed motor as an emergency repair for the primary pump.
Lastly, Sam Ekong said that he received emails from an advocacy group who oppose requiring the use of masks in public. City Council was unanimously against this group and collectively said that they are following the governor’s orders.
“Northville, like any other municipality within the state, is following the governor’s executive order,” Council Member Barbara Moroski-Browne said. “Personally, I also support this, it’s very reasonable.”