Riverhead to upgrade aging Two Bears neighborhood park with new tennis, basketball courts

Improvements are coming to a neighborhood park in the Two Bears development in Riverhead, where amenities are in a state of disrepair.

Riverhead will repair and resurface the town park’s two tennis courts, converting one of them into a basketball court, according to Recreation Superintendent Raymond Coyne.

Both courts will also be striped so they can be used for pickleball, he said.

Coyne said his department and the town’s Recreation Advisory Committee have targeted the Two Bears park for repairs for several years. On Wednesday, the Town Board allocated $175,000 from the fund balance in the town’s General Fund for a capital improvements at the park, which is located in a residential neighborhood off of Middle Road. The town has not had the money to update the park “in a long time,” Coyne added.

Contractors are already lined up for the project, which will begin “right away,” Coyne said.

“I’m hoping to have it done well before the end of September,” he added.

The playground at the park, built in 2005, is usable but deteriorating, Coyne said. “Once more funding comes in, we’re definitely going to put in a brand new playground.”

The town resurfaced the park’s walking path about two years ago after tree roots damaged it and will continue to resurface the path when necessary, Coyne said.

“There’s so many parks here, with very little money,” Coyne said. The town is focusing on those in the most critical condition. “And right now I deem that the most critical is Two Bears,” he said.

The town has seven neighborhood parks offering courts and/or playgrounds. The town resurfaces courts and updates playgrounds as funds allow. In addition to the neighborhood parks, the town owns and maintains three “flagship” parks providing more facilities and amenities for town residents: Stotzky Memorial Park in Riverhead, Veterans Memorial Park in Calverton and Police Officers Memorial Park in Wading River. For more information about Riverhead’s parks, visit the Riverhead Parks and Recreation Department’s website.

Striping the resurfaced courts at Two Bears for pickleball will help the town meet the exploding demand for the sport. “We don’t have enough courts. We just got to keep putting courts up,” Coyne said. “It’s crazy.”

Pickleball is the fastest-growing sport in the country and, according to Coyne, the most popular at Riverhead Town parks. The sport appeals not only to older residents but also to a growing number of young people.

“The kids love it. So now you’ve got all ages playing pickleball,” Coyne said. “We’re even going to introduce an intergenerational pickleball mini-tournament next year — grandparents versus the grandkids.”

Meanwhile, the town this week is resurfacing the heavily-used pickleball courts at Veterans Memorial Park in Calverton, which started deteriorating because of the weather, Coyne said. The Town Board has allocated $25,000 in sales tax revenue collected from recreational cannabis sales within the town to fund that project.