Viewpoint: Advocating For Safe and Viable Tennis Courts And CH Town’s Failure to Respond

I have advocated, fought, and met with town staff and many tennis players for over two decades in an effort to make the Ephesus Tennis courts and the Phillips Tennis Courts safe and viable for play, getting re-done when cracks, sponginess, holes, peeling, excessive water retention and other problems have reduced the playability of the courts
to nearly zero.

We have tried to have regular maintenance done on the courts after each of the re-do’s, but the Town never seems to have the time, person power, or funding to do it.

In recent years the Town has responded to the loudest noises from citizens, and without formal organization, tennis has lost out (and lost courts!) to another newer more vocal sport. The Town has failed to follow-up with contractors who have not delivered the quality of work required to keep the courts from cracking, takes too long when complaints are voiced not only about the cracks, but about burned out lights and torn or broken nets.

This really needs to change! I’m hopeful that this time we tennis players can get the ear of the town, use the funding in place plus more, to bring our tennis facilities back into playability with quality work done on them. We’d like to have the number of public courts increased to offset the crowding with which pickleball has challenged our already small number of facilities, and we’d like to have regular, timely maintenance done on all the Town’s tennis courts.

Contributor: D.C. Willis (CH Town Resident)

Viewpoints are opinions expressed by the contributor.