School board approves tennis court repairs
By Phyllis Moore
Published in News on January 9, 2008 2:08 PM
The school board has approved construction plans for tennis courts at four of the six area high schools.
At its meeting Monday night, the board voted to proceed with the repair and replacement project, hiring Advantage Sports to do the work.
Advantage was awarded the bid, which came in at $28,000 per court to replace six courts each at Southern Wayne and Eastern Wayne high schools, and two each at Charles B. Aycock and Rosewood high schools.
The bulk of the work will be at Southern Wayne and Eastern Wayne, where Advantage Sports assessed "that they're no longer able to fix those courts," said Sprunt Hill, special assistant to the superintendent of auxiliary services.
The move is an effort to keep up with the sports program that we have in Wayne County, he added.
"Tennis is a very important sport to a lot of our schools," he said.
During a meeting of the board's facilities committee earlier in the afternoon, members heard a presentation further explaining the project.
"Three to five years ago, we went to Southern Wayne and Eastern Wayne high schools and poured money into the tennis courts," Hill said. "It didn't take six months before there were cracks."
Later, it was also determined that Southern Wayne's tennis courts were "not in regulation and the foundation had crumbled," Hill said.
Meanwhile, at Eastern Wayne, water drainage problems were among the concerns for the six courts there.
As for the remaining schools, Rosewood could use two more courts as could Aycock, the second largest school in the county, which only has four courts. The Booster Club at Aycock has also offered to contribute financially, Hill noted.
The two remaining high schools are already accounted for -- Spring Creek had earlier projects completed on the track and tennis courts, and Goldsboro High utilizes the city courts at Herman Park, Hill said.
Once this project is completed, he said, "This will give every high school in our system six tennis courts that we have put money into."