A commissioner resigned. A neighbor locked the gates. Tennis balls with hostile messages were lobbed at a nearby house. And now, after an $826,000 renovation, Hermosa Beach is ready to do it all again.
The Kelly Courts pickleball renovation is approaching completion. New surfaces. New fencing — ten feet tall now, because six wasn't enough to stop the climbers. New gates. New separation between the tennis and pickleball courts.
What hasn't changed is the argument.
On Monday night, staff presented the Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission with two options for the reopened courts. Option 1: add Sundays. Option 2: go full seven-days-a-week, nine-to-nine.
Chair Barbara Ellman, who has spent eight years - yes, eight years - mediating the pickleball wars, launched into a retrospective of her bruising pickleball journey with the intensity of a Ken Burns documentary and the neutrality of a plaintiff's attorney.
"I am so offended that this has come back the way it has," she said.
Council green-lights Nike's After Dark women's half marathon in concept, but sends it back for more money, better resident protections, and clarity on what other cities are getting in return for their support.
Unanimous vote will see proposal advance to Council next month. Greenbelt and Valley Park are favored options.
Michael Detoy took the gavel as Hermosa Beach's new mayor Monday night, with Michael Keegan elected mayor pro tem on a 4-1 vote — a lone dissent the only crack in a mercifully drama-free evening
License plate scheme proposed in new State Assembly legislation
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