Fernie council won’t be providing a letter of support at this time for a pickleball court at the Max Turyk Community Centre.
The Pickleball Fernie Association was proposing a new court, which would include some noise suppression baffles.
However, councillor Tracey Audia Kelly said there are still too many questions regarding noise.
“Anything above the baffle height is not going to benefit from any kind of noise reduction. Eight courts playing doubles is 32 people and approximately 6,000 percussions per hour,” she said.
“The research that I saw said that the type of noise is startling to the human brain in a physiological way and is likened to back-up alarms.”
Mayor Harsh Ramadass said he’s in favour of new courts, but agreed about the sound concerns at the Max Turyk location.
“At this point in time, i feel like there are a lot of unanswered questions,” he said.
“None of us are an audio expert or a sound scientist, but I feel like there is a little bit more work to be done before coming back to the council and proposing a site.”
Council has directed staff to work with society to look at other possible sites.
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