Park board doesn’t return serve on tennis courts talk

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PRINCETON — The Princeton Park Board doesn’t see the park district building new designated tennis courts any time in the near future.

At Monday’s board meeting, Park Board President Gene Englehart reported on a recent meeting he attended, along with Park District Administrator Elaine Russell, and Superintendent of Parks Keith Scherer, with Princeton High School Superintendent Kirk Haring.

Among the items on the agenda for the recent meeting was the school’s desire to get some new tennis courts. PHS tennis teams currently play on the sports courts at Alexander Park.

According to Englehart, Haring said the school wants new tennis courts built with a better surface used exclusively for tennis. The school wants eight courts and also wants those courts to be designated for tennis.

Haring said the school wants new tennis courts built this summer and, if an agreement isn’t reached with the park board, the school would possibly build the new courts on property known as the “Little Siberia” area northeast of the school.

Haring’s proposal was for the school and park district to share the costs of the project from the beginning, or possibly PHS would build the courts and the park district could help with costs at a later date, Englehart said.

In reporting to the park board, Englehart said he understood the school’s desire to have better tennis courts but that he didn’t think the park district could designate the current sports courts for just tennis. The courts are used for a variety of activities, including hockey and basketball, he said.

“We are not the Princeton Tennis Club, we are the Princeton Park District,” Englehart said.

Also, the park district doesn’t have the money to build new tennis courts, Englehart said. The district is in the midst of a major Zearing Park expansion project, road work at City-County Park, and also has other projects in the works. Englehart estimated an eight-court project could cost in the $200,000 to $300,000 range.

Russell also expressed her concerns about designating courts exclusively for tennis, saying it would be hard to take away the sports courts from its other uses. The park district needs to serve as many people from the general public as possible, she said.

However, she understands the current sports courts are not appropriate to meet the needs of the high school tennis program, Russell said.

Also attending Monday’s meeting was PHS board member Gary Coates. When asked for his comments, Coates said he, as an individual board member, is interested in keeping the tennis courts at Alexander Park, especially since a parking lot and lighting already exist at that area. Concerning designated use of the tennis courts, Coates said the park board has designated other areas in the district for specific uses, such as baseball diamonds and the skate park.

Board member Jan Milles said she’d like to keep the sports courts for community use but would also be interested in determining if there is another area in Alexander Park that could be used for designated tennis courts, if the high school paid for them to be built.

After further discussion, the board agreed it would not partner at this time with Princeton High School to build new tennis courts, though the board does want to keep an open dialogue with the school administrators and board.

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