Oakmont pickleball project halted

A shutdown came quickly to the project to build pickleball courts at Oakmont.

Less than an hour after members of a new majority took their seats on the homeowners’ association board Tuesday, a construction crew suspended work on four pickleball courts at the east Santa Rosa retirement community’s primary recreation and meeting center.

“They stopped at ?3:05 p.m. because we asked them to stop,” said Ellen Leznik, a longtime opponent of the pickleball project. She’d been elected the board’s new president shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday.

Within minutes of the close of the meeting at which the new board members were seated, Leznik and newly elected Ken Heyman went to the construction site and spoke with representatives of the contractor, Siri Paving and Grading.

The firm had begun heavy-equipment work Monday, the last day of a monthlong election for four seats on the seven-seat governing board. Site work began over the objections of pickleball project foes who asked officials to delay until at least Tuesday, when ballots were counted.

The halting of work did not constitute a termination of the construction contract, which would require a vote of the board.

Leznik, who has served on the board for a year and was joined Tuesday by pickleball project critics Heyman, Greg Goodman and Carolyn Bettencourt, said the issue of voiding the contract will be addressed at the April 18 meeting.

Members of the new board majority have opposed the pickleball project as an unnecessary and unwise use of more than $300,000 of association funds that would be a noisy, unsightly addition to the grounds of the Berger Center. The new directors favor converting some of Oakmont’s tennis courts to pickleball courts.

Chris Smith is at 707-521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.