Last day for opponents to challenge the City’s pickleball permit decision

Dear Observer:

I have just, and for the first time – joined a social forum like the Oakmont Observer.

I have never expressed an opinion about the bewildering changes of writers, contributors and policies of Oakmont.
My strong view is that persons who present themselves or are selected as writers/journalists MUST show that they can give us Oakmont people factual information.

I had been selected by the OVA Board to lead the socalled “Pickleball Project”.
I designed the plan to determine whether or not pickleball play violates the daytime SR noisecode. I designed the measurement plan, selected among 3 acoustic consultants the Bollard Co., arranged with the PB club President Melissa B. to give me help in the layout of 6 PB courts on the 2 lower courts at EastRec an the supply of 24 PB players for the test, I arranged through the rep. of ER local residents the selection of 4 houses for acoustic measurement at backyards facing ER, when this was done,in a public meeting, I and a Bollard engineer reported the results and conclusions:

the ST city noise max. for daytime is not violated, in fact the measurement data during the play of 6 doubles of PB are well below the noise code.
Subsequently, the OVA Board requested that G.Goodwin and myself arrange with the city the permitting for the conversion of the 2 lower courts to 6 pickleball courts. City Planning scheduled a meeting for 4/19, and in fact, approved the permit.
Did the City planners have a choice to decide negatively ? I suggest the answer is NO. We Oakmont had taken on the burden of proofing that pickleball play at EastRec does not violate the city daytime noisecode of 55 dBA.
95 % of my voluntary work for OVA and Oakmont was successfully done, all it needed now is to have Adams Surfacing update the cost estimates which I had since last October (they had expired) and the cost of refixing the upper left court back for tennis only.

Right after the permit meeting, Oakmont News published a writeup by Jim Brewer with the title: EAST REC PICKLEBALL GETS CITY GO-AHEAD.

Brewer – who was sitting to my right in the Cityhall room where the permit meeting took place – heard what was said. He also heard me clarifying for the City planner the not quite honorable claims by 2 opponents of the project.
Yet, Brewer does not ask for input from the relevant sources but has his preferred input sources:

Quote ” Harrell” shepherded the project along with Goodwin” UNQUOTE.
NO, Harrell had nothing to do with the project except helping Medeiros (who must have asked Harrell for help) to come up for me last year with a layoutplan for the 6 PB courts for the test and the eventual conversion.

Brewer quotes Harrell that at least 250,000 $ will not have to be spent. No, do not understate, it will be more like 350,000$.

Brewer used my photo without asking me.

Brewer included a diagram which is an obsolete one with the width of the courts wrong. ( I already has an Oakmont resident call about this error).

Brewer quotes Goodwin saying that it was a group effort. NO, the KEY was that we had an unassailable acoustics measurement with convincing data which Goodwin and me put to the City last October.

I had the last few days enough review with OVA Director Medeiros – as he has taken up the project completion of the reposting and resurfacing by Adams Co. – to make sure that this gets done within a few weeks without cost inflation.

Today is the last day for opponents to challenge the City’s permit decision.
If there is none, then tomorrow, 5/1/2018, the OVA Board will approve the funds and I trust that Al Medeiros will manage the conversion correctly to completion.

Long comment but big Oakmont story, inform Oakmont people factually.

Herb Bieser