ThisWeek CW 06/14/2012
Canal Winchester’s new tennis courts are already serving up fun for residents.
An official grand opening ceremony is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday, June 22, at the tennis courts, 300 S. Washington St. The courts are built on the grounds of the old Weiser Football Field, between Canal Winchester High School and the board of education building.
“This will be an opportunity to give special recognition to the school and our partnership with them to make this happen,” city Public Works Director Matt Peoples said. “We haven’t ever had public courts and the school’s old courts have been unusable for quite some time.”
Mayor Michael Ebert and Canal Winchester Superintendent Kimberley Miller-Smith are scheduled to speak at the event.
City officials said they have much to celebrate with the $112,000 project coming in on budget and on time, with an additional tennis court included.
“Thanks to the school giving us this site, it allowed us to make the court installation much less expensive, since the gravel base was already there from the old bus corral,” Peoples said. “Our contractor, Heiberger Paving over there on West Waterloo, has installed these all over the place, so we’ve got a great product and they gave us some great ideas how we could switch things around to help us get three courts instead of just the two we bid out for.”
All three courts are filling up already with activity, he said. A kiosk is available at the courts listing any scheduled events; otherwise, the courts are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
“The Canal Winchester Recreation Organization added a third session to their kids’ tennis programs since there was so much interest,” Peoples said. “There’s a futures team tennis program for the smaller kids and a youth team tennis program and both have already filled up.”
The courts are lined for both standard regulation dimensions and youth dimensions.
Peoples said the courts are limited to tennis, however, and the city and schools have video monitoring in place to prevent unnecessary damage.
“We’re strictly enforcing that no skateboarding, rollerblading or bicycling happen on the courts because that’ll tear them up — we’ll consider it vandalism,” Peoples said. “They have the skate park to ride at and we want them to take advantage of that.”
Peoples said he’s looking forward to trying out the courts himself.
“My kids are in the futures program and I’m going out tonight to try the courts out, but I haven’t ever played before,” he said. “Mostly, I’m looking forward to seeing lots of people out there using it, especially the kids on Monday nights.”