By Jason Stuart
Ranger-Review Staff Writer
The city of Glendive appears poised to invest several thousand more dollars in the project to resurface the tennis courts in Jaycee West and Lloyd Square parks.
Paul Hopfauf and Paula Marx, members of the Glendive Tennis Association, approached the city council’s Finance, Utilities, Property and Recreation Committee on Tuesday to inform city officials about the increased cost of the project and ask that the city invest more in it to cover the cost.
Hopfauf told FUPR Committee members that the GTA had originally hoped to have the project done in 2016, but by the time all the grants and funding had been secured for the project, it was too late in the year to do it. In the intervening time, he said the courts at Jaycee West Park have gotten even worse than they were, leading to approximately $15,000 more in cost to resurface them than the $50,000 that had originally been estimated.
“When (the contractor) arrived on the site at West Park, the courts were in substantially worse shape this year than they were last year due to deterioration,” Hopfauf said.
He noted with the additional deterioration, the total cost of the project including the Lloyd Square courts is about $70,000. Hopfauf added the cost of repairs to the Lloyd Square courts has not changed.
Financing completion of the project immediately is critical, Hopfauf added, due to the fact that the Montana High School Association has awarded Glendive both the Eastern A Divisional and the Class A State tennis tournaments for 2018.
“This certainly impacts our ability to move forward with the tournaments,” Hopfauf said.
However, he added that “I think we have a plan to move forward,” noting that the GTA is willing to commit an additional $10,000 to the project, using money they had intended to set aside to create a permanent fund for financing future court repairs. The GTA needs another $5,000 to close the gap between what they have and what the project requires.
The city, apparently, is in a position to do just that. City Director of Operations Kevin Dorwart said he had enough money budgeted in the Capital Improvement Fund for the city’s parks to fully make up that gap.
“There’s enough money in the CIP allocated to the tennis courts to do this extra $5,000,” Dorwart told the committee.
The FUPR Committee members agreed and recommended that the full council vote to allocate the additional $5,000 to the tennis courts project at their meeting this Tuesday.
Reach Jason Stuart at rrreporter@rangerreview.com.