By Brett Yates
The Pittsfield Select Board has hired a contractor to give the town’s basketball court a new paint job and topcoat next spring. And, for the first time, the asphalt will sport overlapping lines for pickleball.
“One pickleball court, though — only one will fit,” Selectman A.J. Ruben said. “It’s going to be in the middle of the court.”
Officials expect to spend nearly $10,000 from Pittsfield’s paving reserve fund to bring in a St. Johnsbury-based company to do the job. Last month, the town used a small portion of a grant from the Vermont Dept. of Buildings and General Services to purchase a portable pickleball net, paddles, and balls for public use, as well as two basketballs and a tarp for winter.
For the past three years, the Sports and Fitness Industry Association has named pickleball the fastest-growing sport in America.
The new net and striping will give townspeople one more way to make use of the increasingly multipurpose facility behind town hall. In December of 2021, volunteers turned the court into an ice rink, and winter skating has become an annual tradition in Pittsfield since then.
