The Board of Selectmen on Tuesday approved an approximately $11,700 contract with an Orange-based company to make maintenance repairs on the town’s platform or “paddle” tennis courts at Waveny.
The off-season summer work will include painting one court, tightening the screens, patching them and fixing some of the wood that surrounds them, according to Parks & Recreation Director John Howe.
The contracted company, Reilly Green Mountain Platform Tennis Courts, “actually built the courts and they maintain them for us,” Howe told the selectmen at their regular meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.
“We rotate it around and paint one court each year,” he said.
The woodwork involves the courts’ lower walls that are removed for snow “and also the ‘texture 111’ [plywood siding panels] that goes down the side,” Howe said.
First Selectman Dionna Carlson and Selectman Steve Karl voted 2-0 in favor of the $11,714 contract. Selectman Amy Murphy Carroll was absent.
Funds for the work are available in the current fiscal year’s budget, Howe said.
Karl asked whether the town has considered a synthetic material for the courts instead of wood.
Howe said the wood is preferable because it’s lighter.
“That’s the main issue why we stick with the wood,” he said. “Unfortunately it’s finger-jointed because that saves money. So over time it does wear out. The texture 111, that’s the skirts. It’s mainly there to make them look better, but it also keeps the heat in when we have the heaters on.”
The selectmen asked how often the town pays for the maintenance (the town spends about the same amount annually) and whether anyone from the paddle leagues is involved in the walkthrough (no).
“We don’t bother involving the paddle leagues because most of it is maintenance,” he said. “The main thing we would do if somebody was complaining— ‘Hey, the back screen is loose on court two’ — we’d incorporate that. This year, we didn’t have any of those complaints.”