By maura dowgin
Staff Writer
HOLMDEL — The high school tennis courts will be repaired in the next few months.
The Board of Education accepted a plan from T&M Associates, Middletown, to repair the courts at a cost of $60,000, said Dominic Carrea, assistant superintendent for business and the board secretary.
The money for the project, which is coming from the 2003-2004 school budget, was originally allocated for insurance costs. The anticipated rate increases in the board’s property and casualty insurance were larger than the actual increases, Carrea said.
The condition of the courts have become a "paramount health and safety issue," Carrea said.
The school district’s tennis teams would not have been able to compete on the courts in the condition they are currently in, Carrea said.
"It (the tennis courts’ site) really is in dire need of repair, and the teams aren’t going to be able to play on those courts" if they are not repaired, said board member Karen Strickland.
The courts have cracks at least a half-inch wide, and water seeps up from under the court, said Chuck Chelednik, Holmdel High School varsity tennis coach.
"We played every match with puddles of water in the court," Chelednik said.
The board looked at many different options, including purchasing a grid system to place over the courts or renting courts in the surrounding area, but ultimately determined that repairing the courts themselves would be the most cost-effective solution, Carrea said.
"Initially the tennis courts were in the budget," Carrea said.
"Prior to me putting the budget together, I personally went down and visited the tennis courts," said Carrea. "Unfortunately, we had to cut over $2.5 million in order to get [the budget] down to cap."
The courts were taken out of the budget before it was introduced and voted on by the public, Carrea said.
"It was never, ever a low priority item," Carrea said. It was always a project the board wanted to see get done, he said.
The board always planned on making improvements to the courts, but were not sure what form those improvements would ultimately take or how they would be funded, said Susan Howard, board president.
The work on the tennis courts will be done by early to mid-fall, Carrea said.
No decisions have been made about what the high school varsity girls’ tennis team will do if the repairs are not complete by the start of its fall season, Carrea said.