Sound study causing Tucker to rethink controversial pickleball project

(Left to Right) Robert Gonzales, Barbara Gonzales and Elisabeth Beckwith play pickleball at Rosenfeld Park in Tucker. (Dean Hesse/Decaturish)

TUCKER, Ga. — A proposal to put pickleball courts at the Tucker Recreation Center may be fizzling out after a sound study recommended noise-reducing solutions that the city couldn’t accept.

At a meeting in June, a divided Tucker City Council voted to rebid the project after months of controversy over placing pickleball courts at the recreation center. At that same meeting, the council requested a new sound analysis and mitigation study.

The council met Sept. 22 to hear a presentation about the 68-page study completed by PSM Consulting. After the presentation, Mayor Frank Auman suggested that the city instruct the city manager to halt the process of seeking new bids on the project.

“What I’m saying is we sort of pause what we’ve instructed the city manager to do up to now,” Auman said.