CURRITUCK, N.C. — Just over the Wright Memorial Bridge in Currituck County is where you might find Dare County pickleball players during the summer.
Pickleball has been widely known as one of the fastest-growing sports in America, but the pickleball community in the Outer Banks feels the county is not prioritizing their sport and recreation in general.
“Picked up the paddle, and I never put it down," said Scott Garber, the organizer of the OBX Pickleball Group.
For Garber and the more than 250 active members in the OBX Pickleball Group, this sport is special to them. But where to play is a constant question.
“Right now, we've been playing in Pine Island, which is in Currituck County, and we're out here at Westside Athletic Field playing because we don't have facilities," said Garber.
Two years ago, Dare County allocated $500,000 specifically for pickleball facilities, but Dare County Manager Bobby Outten said they struggled to find a location.
“Nothing was done because we couldn't get consensus on a place to put it or find a place that would accommodate it," said Outten.
A firm is currently studying where Dare County's money should be when it comes to parks and recreation, with the results expected in September.
“They want pickleball courts beyond what's now available. Or they want them indoors, not outdoors, or they want them here, or they want them there. I get all of that. But again, there are other needs in the county besides pickleball, and we want to be sure that when we spend our money, we spend it correctly," said Outten.
For Garber, a worry is that when those results come out, pickleball will once again be pushed to the side.
“All we hear from parks and rec is we don't have the budget, we don't have staffing, we don't have a way of paying for it. It’s like we just moved two years backwards, and here we go again," said Garber.
Garber at the forefront wants pickleball courts, but feels recreation in Dare County needs to be prioritized more.
"This is a community issue for recreation. We all know we have needs, but the commissioners need to recognize that we need green space, we need to buy land," said Garber.
Outten feels the county does prioritize recreation, and also shared the challenges the county faces with a limited amount of land ownership, mostly where residents are not located.
"These limited land resources are problematic for us because we don't have anywhere that we own to put facilities. Even if there were, it's really, really expensive, and you're attacking that cost on the cost to develop whatever the recreation facility or that you put on that land," said Outten.
Garber hopes that, sooner rather than later, the lack of recreational facilities will change.
“They know that we've been barking for recreation. So I hope this message will get to all of those commissioners about recreation," he said.
