Tennis Courts and the City
Thursday, WROY/WRUL Sports reported the Carmi White County High School Boys tennis matches would not be played in Carmi this year, due to the conditions of the tennis courts. All of the matches will be played at the opponents home courts this year.
That prompted a number of responses on Facebook, which in turn prompted Carmi Mayor Jeff Pollard to issue this statement;
“In response to your recent article on the Carmi tennis courts, with the point of view from the city. We have been fully aware of the conditions of the tennis courts and have reached out for grants to help with the funding. I have announced time and time again in open meetings how we have been turned down for grants for this type of project. Sandra and I have spoken with the coaches and parents about having fund-raisers to help with funding to resurface the courts; but no one seems to want to do that. We have also asked the coaches about the school checking into grants to help with funding, again nothing. To respond to some of the Facebook talk; we spent over $20,000 to temporary resurface the front tennis courts a few years ago. The estimates to fix the back courts averaged from $80,000 to $125,000, with that information being shared with coaches, parents and anyone affiliated with the tennis team. We had reached out last fall to a local contractor to see if it can be done any cheaper, at this time we still have not received their quote. I hate the fact that they have rescheduled the matches because the coach had expressed to Sandra they had a small boys teams this year and could utilize the front courts and hopefully the back could be done by fall for the girls tennis matches.”
As it is now, the boys will be playing tennis in Carbondale on April 2, Herrin on April 16, Mt. Carmel on April 23 and Marion on May 8th.
