Town officials say an unforeseen problem with a new irrigation system left the popular clay courts at Mead Park in poor condition this summer, though they’re expected to be back up to snuff in the fall.
This was “probably the worst year, as far as I’m concerned, we’ve had with conditions, barring the years we didn’t open until June,” Parks & Recreation Director John Howe said of the courts.
Addressing the Parks & Recreation Commission at its Sept. 10 meeting, he continued: “We ran into a few problems. With the new irrigation system that went into Mead Park … when they put it in, the pump controls went down. This caused us a lot of headaches. Conditions that weren’t great. With that said, the pump is back up and running. They are clay courts so they need to be watered every night. So when we lose the pump, we can’t water them. We can do any work to them. And it just kind of went downhill.”
The comments came during Howe’s general update to the appointed body.
The tapes that line out the clay courts also need to be replaced “because as they get older, they start curling and they can be a tripping hazard,” Howe said.
“With that, we feel that we’re in a good place for the fall,” he said. “There was a rumor going around [that] the Racquet Club said that they will not have their people play here this fall because the conditions of the courts weren’t safe. The Racquet Club isn’t having people play here this fall anyway. We made an arrangement with the Racquet Club for the summertime when we were slower and we made the courts available for them to use.”