Good news for tennis players in town: Just as the town finishes painting the “new” the public courts at New Canaan High School—they’ve been redone with a post-tensioned concrete surface and a seventh court has been added—a practice facility at Mead Park is getting a much-needed overhaul.
At the request of the Recreation Department, the Board of Selectmen at its Oct. 7 meeting approved 3-0 a $6,500 spend (part of the department’s capital budget) to fix the practice court. It’s located behind the colonnade (installed originally as children’s wading pool during a WPA Project overhaul of the park).
Town officials voted in October 2014 to spend $6,500 repairing the asphalt at this practice tennis court in Mead Park. Credit: Michael Dinan
“Its asphalt is cracked,” Recreation Director Steve Benko said during the meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department. “It needs to be repaired. Balls come off the wall hit the cracks and go the opposite way, people complain.”
Selectman Beth Jones asked during the meeting how often the practice area requires repairs. Benko replied that it often retains water, which then freezes and cracks the asphalt—it originally had been a skating rink, he said—and so it needs to be repaired every three or four years.
The town is saving money on the project, which is coming in under budget, because the work will be done by the same contractor doing the work at NCHS’ tennis courts, officials said.