Council Moves Forward With Repairing Tennis Courts

The New Providence Borough Council voted to spend $130,000 to repair four tennis courts in the town’s center, leaving the other four to be repaired with crack sealing, at a meeting last Monday evening.

Resolution 2011-132 was placed on the consent agenda and approved with a tie-breaking vote from Mayor J. Brooke Hern. The resolution was for "awarding contract to All Surface Asphalt Paving, Inc. for the Tennis Court Reconstruction Project, in the amount of $130,995." Councilmen Michael Gennero, Armand Galluccio, and Alan Lesnewich voted for it, while James Cucco, Robert Munoz, and Vincas Vyzas voted against it.

The repair of the damaged tennis courts was not covered by the existing Recreation Master Plan. The resolution will completely redo four lit courts at the tennis court area, a more long-term solution than the alternative of crack sealing courts. Four courts are currently being crack sealed, which costs about $14,000. The $130,995 resurfacing price tag would allow 5-10 more years of play with minimal financial upkeep.

Gennaro pointed out that with cracks reopening every winter, crack sealing is only useful for a year.

"Between the two courts, you're looking at an expenditure of $28,000 a year," he said. "The thought was to try to take at least half of them and do a more permanent fix... and perhaps in the future, doing a more permanent fix on the courts that were crack sealed this year."

Lesnewich believed it would be wiser to put money into a permanent plan rather than repeatedly investing in immediate solutions.

“It’s more fiscally responsible to get a long term fix of new courts rather than short term fix of sealing cracks,” he said. “If those cracks cost $30,000 this year, how do we know they won’t cost $50,000 next year? I would go for a permanent fix and, if in a few years this plan looks doable and there’s funds available, the money will not be wasted.”

Cucco said he would prefer a short-term fix for the time being.

"It just seems that an awful lot of effort went into this, and if we buy a little more time for the group, for me, it's worth it," he said.

Aside from the resolution, the reconstruction of the borough's tennis courts was also discussed by council during Vyzas's presentation of the Core Recreation Plan, which was created in order to fulfill the goals of the Recreation Master Plan. Vyzas and the Recreation Committee found that the space at the court area would be an ideal place for renovation.

The proposal highlighted plans to convert three of the eight "core area" tennis courts into a turf field at Oakwood Park.

"Over the course of studying the Recreation Master Plan and lack of fields in borough, the council and the Recreation Committee has made efforts toward resurfacing some of the tennis courts in the center of town," Vyzas said. "In reviewing the fields, we discovered that the property there is sufficient to allow for the construction of a turf field and 5 tennis courts on borough property. The tennis courts as they stand now are lit. The field that could be constructed at the court area would be large enough for soccer and lacrosse, but not football."

Vyzas’s presentation also proposed the construction of two additional turf fields; an unlit one at the West Field on high school property, and another built in the lit court area. Vyzas stated that, coupled with the turfed Lieder Field, the proposal would satisfy 86.67% of the plan’s goal. The court area property is sufficient to build both a turf field and five tennis courts. The new fields would add 1,720 petty use hours annually.

Community Activities Advisory Board member Chris Cirrotti gave estimates of the project’s cost. The complete West Field project would cost $750,000, with $560,000 going towards turfing. The court area field project would cost $1.1 million, with field construction costing $500,000 and tennis courts with lighting costing $425,000.

Vyzas stated that he ran the numbers by Borough Engineer Andrew Hipolit, who agreed that the court estimates were adequate, given today’s pricing. The complete project would cost more than $2 million. The plan suggested utilizing the Open Space Fund, which will have $622,500 by May 1. The plan also proposed looking into the possibility of corporate sponsors, grant funding, and local businesses to advertise. Gennaro expressed his concerns about the numbers.

“I’m just wondering at the possibility of how we can fund fields on our own,” he said. “Being as familiar with the budget as I am, I think the answer that keeps coming back to me is, given the times that we’re in, it’s going to be very difficult to fund all or even half of the costs of these fields on the backs of the taxpayers.”

Galluccio also pointed out that a decision to use the Open Space Fund could not be made until November.

"Let's repair those courts, because this could be two, three years down the road before we have the proper funding, before we get the approval—if we get the approval—from the residents to use the Open Space Fund, and then we have to go back and say, 'Well, what if they say no?' There's too many things up in the air with it, and those tennis courts are in really bad shape," Galluccio added.

Munoz worried that redoing the tennis courts now could come back and haunt the council in the future.

"If we spend $130,000 to redo the four courts, and this comes to fruition, we've in effect wasted $130,000 on courts that are going to be torn up and replaced," he said. "What would the recreation kids get more use out of, a turf field or some new tennis courts? I think they'd get it from the field."

Resident Tzu-Lin Toner voiced her disagreement, stating that it was not fiscally wise to continue to invest money in the repeatedly damaged courts.

“The whole point was to fix our fields, not build new ones," she said. "I don’t think it makes financial sense. These courts are 30 years old; crack repair will be harder and harder every year. I don’t know how we’ll fund it for Open Space Fund. We’re tying up Open Space Fund for next ten years at least.”

On the consent agenda, the council approved the resolution to approve the bid for the Tennis Court Reconstruction Project, 4-3. But the council will revisit Vyzas' proposal to build two new turf fields at a later meeting.