Weekend Wrap: New Pickleball Courts Bring Neighborhood Complaints; MUSD Presents Healthy Kids Survey Results; Council Signs Off on Capital Projects

Hidden Valley residents upset with noise, lighting, parking and more from pickleball; student survey reflects trends in cyberbullying, mental health, substance use; social media post of the week

In a trend that has played out from coast to coast as the pickleball craze sweeps the nation, Martinez is learning that with the arrival of dedicated courts for the sport comes the arrival of neighbor frustrations.

Such has been the case for neighbors of Hidden Valley Park since the debut of eight pickleball courts there in February. The complaints have ranged from players clogging residential parking spaces to late-night distractions from court lighting to players bringing along pets and playing music at their games to, most prominently, the piercing noise generated from the plastic balls used in the sport.

“We’ve been working through a lot of issues,” City Manager Michael Chandler told the City Council at Wednesday’s meeting.

That much was made clear during public comment earlier in the meeting, when a resident of the Glacier Classics neighborhood detailed a litany of complaints since pickleball arrived at Hidden Valley — starting with noise.

“Since the completion of the courts, we’ve experienced what I consider unbearable noise coming from the courts,” she said, noting that up to 32 players (along with friends and dogs) routinely congregate for games. “It can be so loud that I’m unable to open windows and relax in my own backyard.”

She noted that sound blankets were installed on one side of the courts but not the side facing her home, limiting their impact on muffling pickleball noise.

Chandler told the council that steps are being taken to address a number of the non-noise-related complaints stemming from the courts — while also acknowledging that there’s no easy fix to the most most vexing issue.

On the plus side, digital timers have been installed in tamper-proof lock boxes on the court lights because of the lack of reliability of the previous mechanical timers that resulted in lights remaining on past the time when play is required to cease (9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays). And signage is being installed to inform players not to park on residential streets. The council discussion also addressed enforcing restrictions on amplified noise and pets at the courts.

“The big issue remains the noise,” Chandler said. “We knew this going in. It’s a common issue across the country, really, as popular as pickleball is.”

The Hidden Valley pickleball courts (photo from city of Martinez)

Chandler said the city has enlisted the consultants who did the original sound study during the design and planning of the courts to look for solutions. Unfortunately, he told the council, “there’s no simple and easy option.”

Installing additional sound blankets on the eastern side of the courts, he explained, would be expensive, time-consuming and “may not even resolve the problem.”

And if they did, a new problem could arise; Chandler pointed out that in places where courts have been enveloped on all sides with sound blankets, they can become extremely hot. “People have actually had health incidents because of that,” he said.

While additional blankets could be installed along a 40-foot stretch of fencing that already exists, Chandler doubted that they would have a meaningful effect on decibel levels.

The most practical solution, he said, may be managing the type of equipment used during play and introducing quieter balls — something that the city of Denver has pursued in response to its own complaints.

While the Martinez pickleball community is open to considering the idea of quieter balls, “they have some concerns about the quality of experience” that would come with the change, Chandler said.

The issue will fall into the lap of the city’s Parks, Recreation, Marina & Arts Commission (PRMAC) for discussion in June as the search for answers continues.

The council also received an update on the fishing pier renovation Wednesday. Some construction-related complications have slowed progress, City Engineer Joe Enke told the council, and the city is now hoping that the pier will reopen by the end of July.

Meanwhile, a ribbon cutting for the new Pine Meadow Park is anticipated for early June.

The Council will hold a workshop on Wednesday, May 28, starting at 6 p.m., to discuss its Fiscal Year 2025-26 budget. In a departure from previous budget cycles, the city will focus only on the next fiscal year instead of adopting a two-year budget. According to the staff report for the workshop:

Shifting from its traditional biennial approach, the City is proposing adoption of a one-year budget to provide greater flexibility as staff and the City Council explore short and long-term fiscal stability measures to address structural deficit concerns and the looming possibility of a recession.

The staff report goes on to state that the first draft of the budget for next fiscal year showed a $1.2 million deficit, prompting city staff to focus “only on funding essential needs,” while identifying “several projects and programs that could be deferred, reduced, or eliminated ….”

The following report by freelance writer Gage Walker is made possible through the financial support of paid subscribers and other donors to the newsletter. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber if not already for $5 a month or $50 annually to support more local news coverage of Martinez.

MUSD Board receives Health Kids Survey results

By Gage Walker

At its May 5 meeting, the Martinez Unified School District Board of Trustees received a presentation about the 2024-2025 California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS), which reflects new trends in cyberbullying, mental health, alcohol use and other aspects of student life.

The survey is a statewide voluntary assessment that measures student well-being, school climate and safety. Administered annually to students in grades 5, 7, 9 and 11, as well as alternative education programs, it offers insights into student experiences across the district.

The CHKS aims to help shape the district's Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), which seeks to improve student support services and strengthen school safety and feelings of connectedness. The voluntary survey participants are kept anonymous and confidential, but students are encouraged to answer honestly.

Patty O’Malley, MUSD's student services coordinator, shared some highlights of this year's survey with the board. She reported that overall, the results remained consistent with previous years and aligned with statewide averages.

Fifth grade students reported especially high levels of school connectedness, support from adults on campus, and parent involvement, O’Malley said. Survey participation rates were also highest at the elementary level, while a slight drop in response rates was noted among older students, particularly in 11th grade.

One noteworthy finding was the significant drop, by over 10%, in reported cyberbullying among fifth graders, and a roughly 5% drop among seventh graders. However, ninth grade and alternative education both reported slight increases in cyberbullying.

Mental health indicators showed more mixed results, as reported feelings of frequent sadness increased in all grades except alternative education. Thoughts of self-harm, which are not measured in fifth grade, were up for ninth, 11th and alternative education. Still, across the board, O'Malley said students reported high levels of wellness and life satisfaction.

Drug and alcohol use remained roughly consistent with previous years, with a slight increase among 11th graders. In all, some 20% of 11th grade students reported using marijuana or alcohol in the past 30 days.

O’Malley emphasized that while the data provides valuable insights, it is not without limitations. Student responses are anonymous and voluntary, which can affect the accuracy of sensitive indicators like drug or alcohol use.

“Kids are very nervous to report any drug or alcohol use, so while it's good to have a snapshot of it, it’s not always 100% correct,” O’Malley said.

In response to the findings, the district plans to continue strengthening mental health services on all campuses, including partnerships with local universities to bring in counseling interns. Additional efforts will focus on continued training for restorative practices, Proactive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS), and alternatives to discipline. The survey will help guide district planning and ensure that student voices are driving improvement, O’Malley said.

During the post-presentation discussion, Elizabeth McCauley, student board representative, raised the idea of comparing the data with results from prior years, when the same student cohort was surveyed.

“I wonder how the data compares to two years ago,” McCauley said. “Is there an investigation that gets done… to see if there are trends with a specific class of students? Is that where the variation in these numbers comes from? Or is that actually a shift across the board?”

O’Malley acknowledged there could be value in analyzing the data in two-year intervals to watch for trends.

The board expressed appreciation for the presentation and the district's ongoing commitment to student well-being.

“Our goal,” O’Malley said, “is always to have a safe, supportive and connected school for all students.”

The following report by freelance writer Tom Lochner is made possible through the financial support of paid subscribers and other donors to the newsletter. Please consider becoming a paid subscriber if not already for $5 a month or $50 annually to support more local news coverage of Martinez.

Council Approves Five-Year Capital Improvement Program

The City council on May 7 unanimously approved a Capital Improvement Program (CIP) for the next five fiscal years beginning this coming July, the latest step in a series that began with a March 12 CIP workshop, followed by an April 2 Council review and an April 22 Planning Commission review. Still to come is the funding for the first two years of the CIP as part of the city's biennial budget, expected to go for adoption before the council in June.

New this year is a five-year CIP book of more than 100 pages that gives a detailed description of the program, which runs from Fiscal Year 2025-26 through 2029-30. The book is available at Attachment_3_CIP_Budget_Book_FINAL_05.0,1.2025.pdf . It documents more than 85 projects with a total cost of more than $118 million and includes a detail sheet for all projects, City Engineer Joe Enke said during a PowerPoint presentation.

That presentation focused primarily on the coming two fiscal years, with the following projects:

• A downtown restroom with a single-stall lease model, to cost $100,000 in Year 1 and $75,000 in Year 2; the $6,000 monthly lease costs include daily maintenance, Enke said. The first year's cost includes design.

• Downtown Plaza improvements, $100,000 in Year 1, with a design concept and recommendations for near-term improvements as the first step.

• Bike Park conceptual design: $50,000 in Year 1, with the design to be incorporated into the Park Master Plan.

The above three projects will be paid out of the General Fund Infrastructure Reserve.

• ADA Transition Plan, for parks and other public facilities: $125,000 in Year 1, to come out of General Fund excess reserves.

• Senior Center improvements: $250,000 in Year 2, from the General Fund Infrastructure Reserve and/or Facility Reserves.

• Waterfront Park Stage, development of preliminary design and scope: $200,000 in Year 1 and $200,000 in Year 2, to be paid out of Cultural Impact fees. The Kiwanis Club has raised the idea of a donation to support the project and possibly expand its scope, Enke said.

• Traffic Safety Improvements: $200,000 a year for both Year 1 and Year 2, an increase over the $100,000 a year previously proposed, payable with Gas Tax funds, with an initial focus on areas near schools and other identified areas of concern. Enke cautioned that some corrections need to be made in the attachments.

• Annual Street Tree/Landscaping: $400,000 in Year 1 and $400,000 in Year 2, from Gas Tax funds, with a priority on key entryway median areas in need of repair.

A staff report prepared by Enke and Finance Director June Du also identifies more than 20 unfunded future traffic improvement projects that are not listed in the five-year CIP but are identified in the recently adopted 2035 General Plan, among them construction of a ferry terminal and citywide bike lane improvements; two street-widening projects (on parts of Alhambra Avenue and Morello Avenue); and numerous traffic signal improvements. The report is available athttps://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/3314049/Staff_Report_Adopt_Five-Year_CIP_FY_2025-2030.pdf.

Social media post of the week

The Martinez Chamber of Commerce held its annual “Best of Martinez” gala. Check out the winners here.