After the removal last month of the the only garbage cans that had served the tennis, basketball, and roller blade hockey players atop Kersland Reservoir on Little Mountain (see post of April 26, below) , a dim bulb of intelligence has been seen to flicker at Park Board. The removed cans have now all been replaced by portable plastic garbage carts, relocated from a cache of the things near the Works Shed. Thank you for coming to your senses, Park Board.
Blunder, or Disrespect? Removal of Garbage Cans at Queen E Park
April 26, 2012Note added on Saturday, May 12
It would appear that some common sense has prevailed in the matter of the garbage can removals reported below, at Queen Elizabeth Park. As of Thursday, May 10, three of the missing cans have been replaced by portable plastic garbage carts. With luck, perhaps Park Board will, in the fullness of time, muster the intelligence quotient to guide them to similarly replace the fourth (at location #2 below).
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Last weekend players at the tennis courts of Queen Elizabeth Park were surprised by the disappearance of the garbage cans that they have used to deposit their refuse into. Enquiries revealed that all four garbage cans that had serviced the tennis courts, basketball courts, and rollerblade hockey rinks, had been removed by order of Park Board’s Supervisor for Downtown Parks, Robert Leupen.
These were the only garbage cans handy for sport players
Readers may not have been aware that since last year, garbage collection from the Vancouver’s parks has been carried out by the City of Vancouver, Engineering Services, Solid Waste Division, not the Park Board’s own garbage collection crews. Park Board Garbage Disposal was merged with City Solid Waste Division in 2011. The ability or willingness to collect garbage from off road locations in parks seems to have disappeared with that merger. City Engineering will only pick up from roadside. No longer wishing Park Board staff to deal with the problem of getting the four metal garbage cans at the Queen E play area out to the roadway on collection day, Mr Leupen has simply ordered the garbage cans removed. Read more here.
Why do the sports players at Queen E Park need garbage receptacles near to the playing areas?
1) Because that is where the garbage is made. Sandwiches are unwrapped, food and drink containers emptied, oranges and bananas are peeled, apple cores left, grip tape replaced, paper stripped off bandages, hockey sticks (and occasionally racquets) are broken. Being garbage, folks are not eager to carry it great distances; they wish to dispose of it as soon as possible. Tennis players who play seasonally indoors sometimes complain that there are no small garbage receptacles by the benches.
2) The near proximity of the four disappeared garbage cans allow for players to sweep leaves and Cottonwood fluff off the tennis courts when necessary. Having carried armfuls or bags full of leaves and Cottonwood drop off the courts myself, I think I can say that no one would accept the challenge of carrying such refuse to the roadway. And it should not be simply left on court.
3) Players not traveling to the venue by car often have no need to go to the car park roadway when exiting the site. Locations of the four disappeared garbage cans invites garbage disposal by nearly everyone as they leave, irrespective of which direction they are going once out the gate.
The disappearance of those four garbage receptacles is a tremendous inconvenience and an insult to all who try to keep those courts and play areas clean. Some users do not care. But others do, and make an effort to keep the area in good shape for the next users. That a civic official should treat that goodwill with disdain by removing these particular garbage cans is shameful. The seventeen tennis courts and other sport areas at this location comprises on of the busiest public sport venues in Vancouver. It deserves more respect.
Wayne Morris,
editor
Anyone wishing to contact the official who ordered the removals is invited to do so:
Robert Leupen, Supervisor of Downtown Parks
phone: 604-257-8581
e-mail: robert.leupen@vancouver.ca
postal address:
c/o Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation
2099 Beach Avenue
Vancouver, British Columbia
V6G 1Z4
Charleson Park
October 8, 2011The parkade rooftop at 650 Moberley Road, in False Creek, is the last of the potential sites for a pilot project for indoor tennis that the Park Board is currently looking at. For Park Board’s purposes, the courts here are included with the assets of Charleson Park, which is sited a couple of hundred meters west of this location, along the water’s edge. Click on images to enlarge. Map below and aerial photo from Google.
This location is alone among sites being considered in being a mere block away from a skytrain station – the Canada Line’s Olympic Village Station. Beyond that, near to the courts, to the west, is the terminal loop for the number 50 bus line. The Cambie and Oak Street buses have stops also very near, and the site is not far from Broadway, which is serviced by various buses. So far as access by public transit goes, these parkade roof courts are unequaled. There are also bicycle routes all around the area, and pay parking lots on either side of the building.
Section of Translink route map - look at all them public transit lines!
There are five tennis courts, three storeys up, on the parkade roof. At the moment, they are not in use, having been stripped to effect “leaky condo” type repairs and replace the waterproof roof membrane. These courts have variable runback (distance from baseline to wall or fence) - 21 feet or more on the north side, less on the south side. If covered they might still give a runback of at least 18 feet, considered the minimum for non tournament play, and surely a necessity for courts that will be rented to the broad public.
photo from 2010
Unlike the other sites being considered for an indoor tennis pilot project, this one has no water, bathrooms, or change rooms, available anywhere near at all. Users of these courts must presently hike down to Stamp’s Landing to find water and bathrooms. But the building is owned by the City of Vancouver, and were the courts to be covered, presumable space in the building could be found to provide basic amenities. For this reason, and because I have played on these courts many times, and lost many a tennis ball to the fearsome briar patch (blackberries) below the south side, I will suggest that these courts especially merit being given a covering that is permanent, rather than seasonal.
While the site is in a residential area, with apartments immediately to the north, the courts are not visible from there.
There are apartments across 6th Avenue to the south, from which the rooftop courts can be seen. However, from that view, the traffic of 6th Avenue, the streetcar tracks and train shed, and a great billboard, attract more attention than anything.
view east from 6th Ave
view north across 6th Ave
Hard to imagine anyone complaining at the appearance of a bubble, frame and fabric covering, or any permanent structure atop those tennis courts.
foot of Ash St
VanPubTennis would love to see public indoor tennis here. Its fairly central location in the city, and closeness to oodles of public transit, seem irresistible. Having five courts under cover, at what would only be nominal additional cost to covering four, would be surely be a great economic advantage for the business side of a public tennis facility. And five courts would allow more flexibility for programming than would fewer. On the down side, provision of basic amenities, and presumably a means of wheelchair access, could add significantly to the initial cost of construction. But overall, so far as covering existing outdoor courts goes, this site is a real winner.
Memorial South Park
October 3, 2011Memorial South is situated on 41st Ave between Knight St and Fraser St. It is another site Park Board is considering for a pilot project for indoor tennis. A public indoor facility here would offer good access to tennis players from nearly all parts of town. The park is well serviced by the number 41 and 43 buses; the number 8 bus (Fraser) brings one to within two blocks on the west side, the number 22 (Knight) bus to within four blocks on the east side. Click on images below to enlarge.
Google aerial view
Aside from the charm of its location, the fact that this site is considered as one where existing courts could be covered is somewhat surprising to this observer.
looking east
The venue is surrounded by trees, and a bubble on them would hardly be noticed by near neighbours. However the four courts here are on the small side, with runback of 15 ft and a few inches, and they have a marked slope downward from east to west. They are bordered on the north by a row of lovely big cedars, whose trunks are only four feet from the fence, and whose branches push against it and hang over it.
looking west
Were these courts to be covered, it seems they would need to be moved south to allow room for a structure to be placed over them, and enlarged to make for a rentable court size having at least 18 ft of runback. Perhaps that could be accomplished by simply putting a strip of asphalt into what is now sidewalk area on the south side. The noticeable downward slope east to west may be irrelevant to paying indoor customers, unless a smoother painted court surface would set balls on the ground to rolling across courts. As pebbled surface outdoor courts, that slope ensures good drainage, and probably goes along way to explain why the surface remains in pretty good shape, except for some pebble loss, year after year.
looking east
There is a two storey field house at Memorial South, with bathrooms and change rooms for the softball, baseball, box lacrosse, soccer and track and field athletes who use park facilities. Presumably this building could accommodate a tennis facility office. It is around 90 metres east of the tennis court area. There are also washrooms in the baseball bleachers, around 70 metres from the courts.
This site perhaps seems a more challenging candidate than others, because of the problems of court size and slope, near trees, and distance from washrooms and change rooms.
On the matter of basic amenities, I list below the distance tennis players must walk through the rain to reach a water source, washrooms, change rooms at a few of the public or quasi public venues near to Vancouver:
Burnaby Tennis Club bubble to clubhouse - 50 metres*
Richmond Tennis Club bubble to clubhouse – 0 metres, there is a canopy above the 8 metres between bubble and clubhouse.
Steveston Community Centre Net Shed to main building – 25 metres
UBC Tennis Centre frame and fabric to Osborne Centre – 33 metres
*An informant who plays in the Burnaby TC bubble tells me that that there are areas near it where plant life can no longer grow, because of the urine. This report may be tinged by hyperbole, but it is entirely consistent with my knowledge of the male side of tennis. Where it is necessary to have players go outdoors to reach washrooms, it is better to have them handy, than not.
Killarney Secondary School/Community Centre
October 1, 2011Tennis fans may recall that Park Board is seeking to cover existing outdoor courts, to provide Vancouver’s first public indoor tennis venue. Back in May, Vanpubtennis posted articles on two sites that were being given consideration, New Brighton Park, and Champlain Heights Park. Vanpub has recently been informed that research into a possible location is proceeding, and that as of this writing, there are four sites under serious consideration: Champlain Heights Park (already covered in the post of May 11, 2011), Killarney Community Centre and High School (VSB courts), Memorial Park South, and Charleson Park (the five rooftop courts at 600 Moberly Road, in False Creek). Watch this page for posts on all of these last three sites.
Public indoor tennis at the Killarney location at 49th Avenue and Kerr would work very well for many Vancouverites. It is already a destination for recreation seekers who wish to swim, skate, or use the community centre fitness area and gym. There is much parking space around the complex. The number 49 and 26 buses service the location via 49th Ave and Kerr St respectively. And it’s not a bad destination to cycle to from anywhere near the long (41st Ave) ridge running east-west.
Click on images to enlarge
There are four tennis courts on the school grounds, between the community ice rink and the school. Unfortunately, of the sites under consideration, the courts here are the tiniest, with a runback of only 14 ft. That is to say there is only 14 feet from the back of the baseline to the fence. A runback of 21 ft is generally considered minimum for tournament play, 18 ft for recreational play involving players beyond a beginner’s level of skill. It should be the minimum for a facility where the broad public are charged money to play. Looking at the aerial view of these courts, it appears there is room to add an edge of asphalt on the north side sufficient to make runback of at least 18 ft. If the extra needed could only be got by crossing over the property line between VSB and VPB, might that throw a spanner into the bureaucratic works? Hmmmmn. Lets hope not.
The trick to making a pilot project work here is cooperation between the city’s two monster bureaucracies, the Vancouver School Board and the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation. Were it just you, dear reader, as the Vancouver School Board, and I, as the Vancouver Park Board, we could arrange this over coffee. “Yes, your students will get designated time on court, in return for your kind loan of the courts to be covered and rented out by our community centre. Bless us all!” But you and I do not have oodles of departments, committees, and collective bargaining agreements demanding compliance of every new wrinkle in the status quo.
In this case, the configuration of the nearby buildings is not ideal. The nearest building to the courts is the high school. During the stormy days of winter, access to school water fountains and washrooms would be best for tennis players, giving them the least distance to walk through the rain. But the school may not wish to allow access during the evening and on weekends. The next nearest building is the skating rink. Well, perhaps there is a near door that tennis players could use to access washrooms and change rooms in that building. Were it necessary to walk around outside the rink to the community centre for change rooms and washrooms, it would mean a walk through the rain of over a hundred metres. Hopefully, the two great bureaucracies could work things out so that such a trek was not necessary.
Certainly, to this observer, it seems a very attractive proposition to have a pool and community centre next door to a tennis facility. Vanpub likes this site.
Give us your opinions…leave a comment.
Last refurbishments for 2011
September 7, 2011The two old, naked, asphalt courts at Jericho Beach Park have a nice new blue on green coated surface. Players will not be shunning them any more.
Paint still drying, nets to be remounted.
Meanwhile, at 600 Moberly, the five parkade rooftop courts still have a way to go.
Bare concrete, patched, awaits a surface coat, paint.
Small tennis news
July 14, 2011One court at the Trout Lake Community Centre suddenly grew a couple of great cracks a few weeks ago. The largest and longest was perfectly straight. It followed an edge where old asphalt had been cut away and new asphalt put down across an area that had been crushed by heavy equipment that had been sitting on the courts when the ice rink was being constructed, in 2008 and 2009. An alert court user and neighbour immediately informed a Park Board work yard supervisor of the development. It was quickly repaired. Local players are hoping the crack does not reappear any time soon.
Stanley Park pay courts get repair and paint
June 21, 2011This year will mark the 80th birthday for the Stanley Park Open. To mark the occasion, Park Board is giving the six lower pay courts – show courts for the tournament – a new surface. Those courts looked to be as flat as a pancake as they were, but the paint was faded and showing cracks here and there, along with deterioration around of some of the net centre strap anchor holes. Should look fine for the tournament. Blue courts on a green background.
Click on photo to enlarge.
Champlain Heights Park, 3351 Maquinna Drive
May 11, 2011This park, down in the southeast corner of the city above SE Marine, is another site that has been talked about as a possible location for a public indoor tennis pilot project. See the map and aerial view below. Click on them to enlarge.
The park here is fairly large, and forested. The woods help to make the area quite lovely. There are several features of this locale that draw Park Board attention. As with New Brighton Park, there are no residential neighbours near the four tennis courts, only forest and trails, with the community centre across the street. Hence it may be possible to erect a bubble, a frame and fabric structure, or even a tilt-up metal-roofed building over the courts without upsetting anyone.
A facility here could be managed as adjunct to the Champlain Heights Community Centre’s operations, and allow players to take advantage of amenities in the centre. Click on photos to enlarge.
There is access by public transportation, especially useful for tennis programming for young folk, and attracting players like this writer, who do not drive everywhere. The number 26 Translink bus, that connects with main thoroughfares at 41st Ave, 49th Ave, Kingsway, and the Joyce Skytrain station, comes down Maquinna Drive, with a stop at the community center for both directions. Click on photo to enlarge.
Adult players might occasionally appreciate that there is a pub/restaurant around the corner of Maquinna and Champlain Crescent, maybe 90 meters from the tennis courts.
Downside? It is perhaps distant for many city residents, though, like New Brighton Park, indoor tennis courts here would likely attract some players who commute to and from Vancouver.
editor’s note: If the first public indoor courts were to go here, we would hope to eventually see more covered courts at other locations.
New Brighton Park, 500 North Windermere Street
April 28, 2011Park Board staff have recommended that somewhere in the Capital Plan for 2012-2014 funds be found to build a pilot project indoor tennis facility. We understand that this first venture into public indoor tennis is most likely to be a matter of covering, somewhere, existing outdoor courts. There are several sites which are, at this point, under consideration. Vanpubtennis will, in days to come, do a posting on each. New Brighton Park is first, for no compelling reason. Map and aerial view below thanks to Google. Click on each to enlarge.
New Brighton Park, down beyond the railway tracks below Hastings Park is unusual among Vancouver’s Parks in being very obviously nestled in an industrial milieu. See below, click on image to enlarge.
Park Board may not be obliged to meet their usual, very costly, architectural standard of prettiness with any structure placed in this park. There are no residential neighbours, and an inexpensive building with a standing seam metal roof, of the type commonly used to cover tennis courts, will look right at home here.
Note the sign above the gate admonishing dog owners to pick up poop. Oh Park Board.....do you REALLY think dog poop can be picked off asphalt tennis courts??????
A pilot project consisting of a permanent, standalone structure placed atop the existing courts (given a colour coating first, of course) may well be possible in New Brighton Park. Not only that, there looks to be room for six, or more (eventually, if not first affordable), if dog lovers were willing to cede a little of the dog run. Image from Park Board web site.
editors note: If an indoor tennis facility were to be built here, it is tantalising to dream of eventually a covered pool, with fitness area, to complement the tennis venue. The facility could become a year round fitness centre – tennis, exercise room, sauna, whirlpool, pool. I’m becoming healthier just thinking about it. Vanpubtennis likes this one.
Downside? No public transportation access.
6 more courts at Grant Connell
March 7, 2011Many of you know that the Grant Connell Tennis Centre in North Van is enlarging on its success by expanding. They are building an additional six courts. Work is to begin this summer, I am told. The new facility will look something like the artist’s rendering below. Click on it for a closer look.
UBC Tennis Centre expansion moves along
November 19, 2010Those who have played at the UBC Tennis Centre in winters past may remember how in the early 2000s the fabric roof would split with every big wind, and the courts below become inundated with pools of water until a patch-job could be effected. Somewhere in mid decade the fabric was replaced, and the problem of rips in the roof eased, I am told. Wisely, UBC is not fooling around with fabric to cover the eight new courts now under construction. The roofing is standing seam metal. That should withstand anything mother nature can throw at the new venue, for twenty or more years, anyway. Good choice. Peek at the new construction below. The green thing at left is the old fabric-covered facility (click on graphic to enlarge).
Putting the roof over what will be the tournament courts (click on photo to enlarge):
See a couple of architectural drawings below (click on them to enlarge):
Find more info and PDFs to download here.
Public Tennis Advocate nods off at the wheel.
October 22, 2010Driving past Grandview Park today, I noticed that whole block had been razed, and become a pile of dirt, with construction equipment sprinkled around. In the south west corner lay a rectangular asphalt surface, black, and empty. There used to be three tennis courts in that park, just off Charles at Cotton Drive, where sits the new black piece of paving. A little research of the Park Board web site revealed a plan for reconstruction of the park conceived last winter. One of the early concept designs showed a single tennis court and a larger “multi-use court”. Somehow or another, the tennis court was dropped, and what I saw as I passed by was the asphalt that will become a single “multi-use court”. See concept plan below (click on it to enlarge). 
Well, I do not know what the multi-uses will be, there in Grandview Park, but I think we can rest assured that there will be no net posts or a net involved, and tennis will NOT be one of them. Vancouver Public tennis regrets having missed the boat on the disappearance of those courts. Hopefully, neighbourhood residents will be getting what they want out of their new slab of asphalt.
More new blue courts!
October 19, 2010Tennis fans may have noticed, or perhaps read about here, the work going on at Jericho Beach. Tennis players have lost one of five courts to accomodate enlargement of an adjacent grass field for rugby – the soccer players have the artificial turf with lights, across from the hostel. Of the five tennis courts that used to be here, the two easternmost remain, and just north of them, two new courts have been constructed. The work’s done; the nets are up! Take a peek below (click on photo to enlarge).
At the time of my visit (19 Oct), the gate into the courts from the parking lot side was chained and padlocked. However, there is an entrance to the old courts with no gate on the briar patch side of the site (east), and the gate between the old courts and the new is open. See below.
Cannot think of any reason why Park Board should wish to prevent play at the site at this point. The western locked gate may just be an oversight. The new courts look scrumptious, of course, and make the old ones look pathetic. But the old courts are still in good shape, despite looking so drab. So don’t hold back folks, and try not to fight over who gets to play on the spiffy new blue two!
Update on summertime spending, 2010
August 26, 2010Summer has come and gone, Park Board has done most of what it is going to do for tennis players this year. Time to update an earlier post from May. Beyond the lovely court refurbishment at David Lam Park, our Park Board has delivered on it’s promise to put a colour coating on the courts at Queen Elizabeth Park. Thanks to Tomko Sports Systems for having done what seems to be a very nice job of that. Composite photo below, click on it to enlarge.
At Jericho Beach Park work has begun to convert a natural grass field to the admixture of plastics and old tires that is a crumb rubber artificial turf field. Tennis courts have been moved to accommodate the enlargement of the remaining natural grass field. But instead of leaving two courts in place, and moving three, as had been planned, only two courts have been moved. One has simply been obliterated – there will be four courts where there were five. VanPubTennis has been told that the space for the missing court was wanted for the field expansion. Click on graphics below to enlarge.
Tennis court bites the dust at Jericho Beach Park.
Two courts saved (near) ; two moved (far) - four courts where there were five.
At the time of this writing, nothing has been done to the five rooftop courts at 650 Moberly, sometimes called Charleson Park. We have been informed that the roof membrane repair and consequent court resurfacing is now scheduled for spring of 2011.
If anyone knows of other tennis related projects, repairs, improvements, undertaken by our Board of Parks and Recreation this summer, please let me know. E-mail to vanpubtennis@gmail.com
Wayne Morris,
editor, Vancouver Public Tennis
vanpubtennis.com
New, blue courts at Queen E Park
July 30, 2010The work Park Board had promised for the remaining 16 bare asphalt courts at Queen Elizabeth Park is being done. Click on photo to enlarge.
Painting the lines on courts one to four.
If our spate of clear weather holds up, the site should have what the Park Board likes to call “US Open blue”, on all courts very soon. Regular users are very happy at the prospect.
Tennis players also hope the in-line skaters from the two hockey rinks next door will resist the temptation to skate on the new surface. The attraction for skaters is the softer, smoother, feel of it, as regular tennis players discovered last year after the “test” court nine was painted. This writer last winter actually witnessed one gentleman leave one of the hockey rinks, where he was skating figures all by himself, and go to the new blue tennis court to swoop and glide ever so quietly around on the new surface. When I asked him to please leave our one coloured tennis court and use the surface provided for skaters, he looked sheepish and complied. But the marks he had put on the court are still there, having been multiplied many times by other skaters. The tennis court colour coat is essentially latex paint with fine sand in it. Skate wheels mark the surface and even gouge right through to the underlying asphalt on sharp turns.
Update on the Kits High renewal
June 10, 2010Most recent design plans for the renewal of Kitsilano Secondary School show three designs still under consideration. The first, labeled Concept F, is the least expensive, and one for which there are no drawings available. We are told the layout of it would be similar to another preferred design, Concept D2, except that in Concept F the old school would be entirely demolished and a new one built from scratch. The other two designs, Concepts D2 and A2, are more costly than Concept F, and involve the retention of existing exterior facades and wooden window frames, some doors, old banisters and other artifacts from the interior of the old school. The idea would be to make a kind of faux historical edifice that will better survive an earthquake than the real historical edifice.
Drawings for Concepts D2 and A2 show that tennis courts may still have a future at Kits High. Concept D2 shows six tennis courts as an alternative to an “all weather field” on the southeast side of the site (12th Ave at Larch). Click on graphic to enlarge.
Tennis courts in the location shown above would likely fall into shadow from the near buildings to the west in the afternoon. Old hands who play at Kits High now fear this circumstance would much slow the drying time after a rain for all but the hottest summer months. On the plus side, the near proximity to the Kits Community Centre (just across Larch) would make for easy access to bathrooms and water at times when the school is closed.
Concept A2 shows a small field and three tennis courts at the southwest corner of the site, where the existing courts are located (12th Ave at Trafalgar).
Concept A2 Site Plan, with three tennis courts on the southwest side
The three courts shown above are oriented east-west, rather than north-south, as is normally the case for outdoor courts in Vancouver. The east-west orientation would make the courts good for winter play, when the sun stays in the southern sky all day long. But players would have much trouble serving into the sun nearly all morning and all afternoon during the good days of summer. The location on the south-west corner of the block, with no shadow-casting buildings near, is good for maximum sunlight and movement of air to help dry courts after a rain. We shall assume that the great blobs of green drawn over the tennis courts are not intended to represent more vegetation than exists there now. People who play at Kits regularly now point out that three courts will not be enough to accommodate all those who like to play there during the summer months.
For a crow’s eye view of what the two favoured Concepts (D2, and A2) might look from above 12th Ave looking kind of north along Larch St, see below:
Download a multi-paged PDF giving details of the three Concept Designs for Kits high renewal here.
Recent news stories about budget problems at the Vancouver School Board suggest that if there is a choice to be made between an all-weather field and six tennis courts, as seen in the preferred Concept D2, that choice may well be decided by cost. If the “all weather field” the designers refer to is intended to be crumb rubber artificial turf (the same as Park Board is enthusiastically constructing at various sites around Vancouver), then tennis courts may be the preferred option. Park Board is spending around $3 million dollars each on artificial turf fields at Jericho Beach Park and Memorial Park South. The field size proposed for Kits High in Concept D2 is a bit more than 2/3 the size of the Park Board fields (4400 sq. m. as opposed to 6400 sq.m.). Artificial turf may be toxic, but it ain’t cheap.
Read about the toxic substances in crumb rubber artificial turf here.
Check our earlier article on the Kits High courts here.
Summertime spending 2010
May 16, 2010Well, tennis fans, this is the time of year that our Board of Parks and Recreation begins to do whatever it has planned to do with that part of its budget earmarked for its outdoor tennis courts. In the City’s Capital Plan for 2009-2011 there is $725,000 budgeted to spend on “tennis court rebuilds and repairs”. If we are correct to assume that last year’s redo of the two courts at McSpadden Park, Queen Elizabeth Park’s famous Blue Court Nine, perhaps the repainting of the courts at the Trout Lake Community Centre, and net replacements at various locations, all came out of that one pot, there still remains a significant amount of money to be spent this summer and next.
The one sure expediture known at this time is the refurbishment of the two courts at David Lam Park, just off Drake Street south of Pacific Ave. That work has already been done. See photo below. Click on it to enlarge.
Users of the courts at Queen Elizabeth Park are breathlessly waiting for the remaining uncoated 16 courts there to get the same paint job given famous Blue Court Nine, as a test, last summer. Sam Bachra, the Park Board staffer whose email address is given on the informational sign posted on the fence by court nine, tells me that colour-coating of the other courts has been given the go-ahead. The work was supposed to have started by now, but has been delayed due to a recently discovered substrate of water (presumably atop the roof of the reservoir and beneath the asphalt) that must be dried out before work can begin. Mr Bachra hopes surfacing work on the courts can be done in July and August. Work is planned to proceed coating one quadrant (four courts), allowing the paint to dry, then going on to the next quadrant. If the weather cooperates, it is thought the job will require two months.
There may be an additional complication to affect timing here. Last fall workers chalked graphs onto the court surface at four spots. Bystanders were told these were to become vent holes into the reservoir beneath the courts. Park Board staffer Sam Bachra knew nothing of this when I recently spoke to him about plans for the Queen E courts this summer. He is aware now. If it turns out that Park Board must coordinate its surfacing project with the GVRD’s planned vent hole work, there could be delay for that reason. Let’s hope the courts actually do get the promised paint job this summer.
The False Creek Tennis Club, who normally rent from Park Board use of courts atop the building at 650 Moberly (the Charleson Park courts) two evenings per week through the summer, have been reallocated courts at Jericho Beach Park this year. That is to allow for work to be done on the building at 650 Moberly, that will entail refurbishment of the five tennis courts on the roof. According to info posted on the False Creek Tennis Club web site, that work is scheduled to happen in July and August. Some tennis fans may recall that this job was rumoured to have been planned for last year. Presumably it will actually happen this summer.
Speaking with a Park Board staffer on this subject around a year ago, Peter Jackson and myself were informed that the work atop 650 Moberly was required to address structural problems having nothing to do with the tennis courts. But the job would require resurfacing the courts, and cost in the neighbourhood of $500,000. Note that such a sum takes care of a great big chunk of the current Capital Plan budget for tennis courts. There should be information on the tendering of this work available on the Park Board web site some time soon.
Aside from the work mentioned above, it would appear that the courts at Jericho Beach Park are going to be reconfigured to accommodate a new artificial turf field, and the enlargement of a neighbouring grass field. See photo below, taken from a Park Board PDF – new tennis court configuration seen at upper right. Click on photo to enlarge.
Work on the Jericho fields is planned to begin this summer or fall. So far as I can gather, the plan to rearrange the tennis courts remains in effect. But since Park Board has rented courts here to the False Creek Tennis Club for this summer, presumably work on the tennis courts will occur next year. At the very least, the three courts being moved will have to be resurfaced. The budget to do this may be included with the multi-million dollar cost of doing the field work, and not subtract from the Capital Plan allocation for rebuilding and repairing tennis courts. Lets hope so.
If anyone knows of other tennis related projects the Park Board is undertaking this summer, please let us know.
Email to vanpubtennis@gmail.com .
