PORTSMOUTH — Sorry, pickleball enthusiasts. The sport won’t be coming to Portsmouth just yet.

The town recently learned that its 2022 Department of Environmental Management (DEM) Recreation Grant application to transform the abandoned basketball courts at the former Elmhurst School into a four-court pickleball facility was not selected.

According to Town Administrator Richard Rainer, Jr., DEM received 53 applications requesting more than $14 million to support recreation facilities around the state. Only 16 projects were funded this round, and Portsmouth was not among them.

He said the town would either choose to fund the project itself, or wait another two years to reapply for another DEM grant.

The cost of the project was estimated at $265,700, and the grant amount would have been $212,560. It was a matching grant, so the town would have had to put up $53,140 (20 percent of the total cost) if the grant had been approved. 

During a public workshop in April on the town’s Parks, Recreation and Open Space Master Plan project, many residents mentioned the installation of pickleball courts as one of the town’s top priorities going forward. The master plan was initiated by the town, working with the Parks and Recreation Committee, Parks and Recreation Director Wendy Bulk and the Horsley Witten Group.

The pickleball facility was one of two projects that were denied by DEM. The other application was for the design, engineering and installation of a new 24x24-foot pavilion on a concrete pad adjacent to the exiting pavilion at Glen Park.

The total project cost was estimated at $97,450. The town was seeking a grant for $77,960, with the town contributing the rest.

Other towns get theirs

Although DEM denied Portsmouth’s matching grant request, it approved projects that include pickleball courts in three other municipalities:

• $80,000 to the Town of Barrington to build four permanent pickle ball courts at Chianese Park. 

• $100,000 to East Greenwich to make improvements at Academy Field, including new pickleball courts.

• $400,000 to West Warwick for improvements to the Crompton Playground and Stephen Clarke Recreation Area, including the addition of pickleball courts.