Times Observer photo by Josh Cotton These pickleball rules, set to take effect June 1, were postponed by act of Warren City Council during Wednesday’s special meeting.

Rules governing pickleball play that went into effect at Beaty Park on Wednesday were postponed by Warren City Council’s special meeting later that day.

The regulations were implemented by the city to facilitate “open play” to “provide equal access for all players to maximize their time on the courts,” according to the regulations postd at the park.

A group of 10 approached council on Wednesday

The guidelines posted at the park outline specific procedures to get anyone that wants to play onto the court.

“We just feel that open play is not suiting the needs of all the players,” Terry Borger said. “I don’t know who determined that this was going to be a good idea.

“We want to play with like-skill members and friends,” she added.

Borger stressed that no rules had been in place before.

“We’ve just kind of all worked it out,” Marlene Sandberg added. “We don’t know how it got down there or who put it there.”

She suggested that it “seems like everything is being done behind the scenes without asking the people that have played pickleball for a very long time.”

Mark Espin called it a “rule for a problem that isn’t really a problem.”

Mayor Dave Wortman said that it is “exciting there’s a lot of enthusiasm about pickleball” but suggested the rules might be “the cart in front of the horse.

“It sounds to me (that) not all voices or concerns relative to the users of the facilities have necessarily been listened to up to this point.”

“I was under the impression that any rules conversation was to be for the potential new courts,” Councilman Jared Villella said. “I was unaware that anyone was in conversation to enact new rules on the existing courts.

Councilman John Wortman presented a motion to postpone the effective date of the rules.

“The rules that had been slated to take effect today are not in the best interest of the city or the city’s residents,” he said, calling for a work session “that can allow anybody that wants to have a say” to have one.

The motion, which was unanimously approved, also called for the removal of the sign.