Advocates - chapelhilltennis.org

10Oct 2022 by jerrye316

A Decade of Neglect of Public Tennis Courts Shown in Pictures

Advocates, Court Maintenance, Preservation, Public Tennis Courts, Youth Tennis

The pictures are similar but they are taken ten years apart at two Chapel Hill public tennis facilities. Here is a picture from Ephesus tennis courts in 2012. Ephesus 2012 And here is a picture of current Cedar Falls tennis courts in 2022. Cedar Falls 2022 Both pictures say that nets have been taken down because the courts are unsafe to play on. The first picture was posted in Facebook with the title "Chapel Hill - Southern Part of Heaven unless you are a tennis player". The second picture describes two courts at Cedar Falls which are unsafe to play on today. East HS JV teams use these courts, and just imagine parents watching their children play on the remaining four courts which are also in terrible condition and barely…

23Sep 2022 by jerrye316

Thank You CH PG&R Commissioners

Advocates, Court Maintenance, Preservation, Public Tennis Courts

On Tuesday, Sept 20, 2022, there was a meeting of the Parks, Greenways, and Recreation Commission Board. During this meeting, the proposal for Pickleball using the two of the remaining four Ephesus tennis courts was discussed and voted upon. The Parks and Rec staff provided results from an earlier survey which can be seen at <SurveyResults>. Of particular interest was that 90% of the tennis respondents were from CH/Orange County as opposed to 52% of PickleBall. The tennis community has always talked about how tennis is serving the local community families and citizens, which was verified in this statistic. Representatives and players for both PickleBall and Tennis were given time to speak about their sport and facility needs. We should thank and compliment all the speakers for doing a good…

11Jul 2022 by jerrye316

Too Few CH Public Tennis Courts

Advocates, Court Maintenance, Public Tennis Courts

There have recently been proposals about sharing CH public tennis courts with other sports. In particular, at the Ephesus courts, there are four tennis courts and six pickleball (PB) courts. The PB community has submitted a proposal to takeover an additional two of the remaining tennis courts 50% of time. The proposal also includes drawing permanent PB lines on the two shared courts. The tennis community has defended preserving the four tennis courts and given full and detailed reasons in a response document. However, the friends of CH public tennis would like to highlight one point that is especially pertinent in the coming months. "There are too few CH public tennis courts which are in good playable condition." Later this year (or early next), Cedar Falls and Hargraves tennis courts…

12Jan 2022 by jerrye316

Champagne and Tennis

Advocates, Court Maintenance, Public Tennis Courts

Cheers for a happy new year 2022. Last year was a good year for Chapel Hill public tennis. We saw a lot of incremental improvements to the public courts, communication channels with the town P&R were established, and significant future renovation proposals were presented. Most importantly the tennis community became engaged in the decision processes. Together, we coordinated and worked for improvements to the tennis facilities with a sense of "fairness and transparency". It's a new year. The focus was mainly on Ephesus and Cedar Falls/Hargraves last year, and we need to keep the good changes and momentum going there. We should also investigate needed updates to the other tennis court locations. And preserve our existing courts for tennis. The plan is to hold tennis stakeholder and status update meetings…

26Oct 2021 by jerrye316

Town Agrees to Keep Six Courts At Cedar Falls. Really Good News!

Advocates

Update: This is an update to a previous blog regarding a town proposal to eliminate yet another full size tennis court. Good news. A bond has passed with funds allocated to totally renovate the tennis courts at Cedar Falls starting in 2022. More good news. In a PG&R Commission meeting last week and monthly meeting with P&R, it was stated that the town has agreed to proceed with keeping all six full size tennis courts. Lines will be painted representing junior courts. In an earlier proposal, the original renovation plan was to eliminate a full size court for 3-4 junior courts. The tennis community united and provided feedback to the town opposing this plan. Junior courts have value but that value is less than keeping the six full size courts…

10Sep 2021 by jerrye316

Bicycle Lanes and Junior Courts

Advocates, Public Tennis Courts

There is value in both, but ... The tennis courts at Cedar Falls are planned to be renovated. However, the proposal originally proposed by Parks and Rec was to eliminate a full size court from six to five and replace with 4 junior tennis courts. See town proposal <here>. The question is not whether junior courts are good, but at what expense and benefit. All the full sized courts are currently used by the East Chapel Hill HS JV teams. Once the courts are renovated there will be even more demand for full use of courts in the evening. There is also the possibility with six courts to rent out the courts to tennis associations. So why reduce the number of courts to five? When CH Parks and Rec was…

20Jul 2021 by jerrye316

Welcome: Chapel Hill Tennis Voices

Advocates

Welcome to the launch of Chapel Hill Tennis Voices, spreading news, constructive opinions, and articles regarding the public tennis community in Chapel Hill. Make your voices heard. Contribute to this section by e-mailing admin@chapelhilltennis.org . The goal is to bring the tennis community together by having a central place to: Share information affecting the tennis players and public facilities Advocate for the preservation and renovations of the current public courts Make people aware of proposals from the town and Parks and Rec affecting public tennis facilities Organize to provide feedback and guide the town on future decision about CH tennis Support our youth, family and school tennis teams so their voices are heard Provide a vehicle for tennis players to meet other tennis players