City to "Fix" Memorial Park Tennis Courts

Recently the City of El Paso finished re-doing the tennis courts at Memorial Park. The courts were in desperate need of repair. Unfortunately, the work done on them was sub-standard and frequent tennis players began to complain about the poor quality of the courts. Now the City is fixing the situation. In an email to Neighborhood Association Presidents, Representative Susie Byrd wrote:

Please share [message from Alan Shubert, City Engineer below] with your association. This project was mismanaged and not built appropriately. The City is fixing. They are also correcting for the mismanagement to make sure it does not happen again.

Also, I’ve received some complaints from neighbors in the immediate vicinity about the fact that people can turn on the lights and that some folks are staying out there past the time the park closes. We are fixing that too. There will be a timer that shuts down the lights at 10pm.

Susie

Here is Alan Shubert's email message to Debbie Hamlyn, Assistant City Manager, regarding the Memorial Park tennis courts:

The Engineering and Construction Management Dept. and the Parks and Recreation Dept. have been working since early November on issues that have arisen with the installation of the new tennis courts at Memorial park. In the time since we were advised about the problems with the court construction we met with independent professional engineers, contractors and suppliers to investigate what alternatives were available to resolve the problems. They made several suggestions which we took into consideration in deciding on the best approach. Subsequently, we looked for procurement options to allow us to hire a contractor in a timely manner.

The tennis courts will be overlaid with 2” of HMAC (Hot Mix Asphaltic Concrete), separated from the concrete and expansion joints with a geotextile fabric. We have chosen Hellas, a nationally experienced firm in the construction and re-construction of tennis courts to perform the work. They have built many successful projects in the City of El Paso for EPISD, YIST, Ft. Bliss, and recently competed one at Clint. They are scheduled to begin work in early January. The duration required for the work is 8 weeks. The first two to three weeks will involve the placement and compaction of the asphalt. A four week period of no activity is necessary, to allow volatile gases in the asphalt to evaporate so they can come back in and place the acrylic and color layers. Play will be allowed to resume in early March.

I apologize for the delay, but the logistics have been difficult to work out with the holiday and the end of the year approaching. I will be happy to meet with each of you to discuss further if you desire. Please forward this to anyone else who might be interested

R. Alan Shubert, P.E., City Engineer

Community Development Steering Committee Wants to See Alternate Budget for Memorial Park Upgrade

Tennis enthusiast and chairwoman of the Community Development Steering Committee, Billie Brown, wants to see an alternate budget proposal to the tennis court upgrade at Memorial Park. Proposed is a retrofitting of the courts that would include two basketball standards on one of the courts. Brown seemed to side with Manhattan Heights Neighborhood Association's Julie Rutledge who led a small group of people to the hearing in opposition to the multi-use proposal for the existing courts.

Two petitions have circulated. One supports the multi-use proposal and has 54 signatures. Another circulated by Rutledge has "30 or 40" signatures in her words and runs 2 - 1 opposed to the multi-use facility. That would still mean that most signers want the retrofit to include the basketball standards as proposed by Parks and Recreation.

Neighbor concerns included a bias that basketball players use profane language. (Of course, tennis players don't.) They also fear that basketballs, like soccer balls, will damage nets and fencing. Parks and Rec's design of the court would enhance ball control and provide more privacy according to project manager, Rick Garcia.

As always, the historic card was played - these have always been tennis courts and should remain that way. Never mind the new aquatic center, remodeling of the library, loss of a rose garden and a cannon that has never been replaced since it went missing.

Will there be more recreational opportunities for El Pasoans who use Memorial Park? Neighbors argue that the interlocal agreement between El Paso and EPISD already allows for youth to use school facilities and there are basketball courts available after 5 p.m. at Crockett Elementary. Of course, not just kids play basketball and many adults make it part of their exercise regimen.

Memorial Park Proposal

Parks Project Superintendent, Richard Garcia, corrected me about the proposed work at Memorial Park:

"Jim - we are proposing using only one of the two south courts as a multipurpose court (basketball or tennis ) the other 3 will remain tennis courts."

Thanks, Rick!

Memorial Park - a Community Park - Slated To Get Basketball Courts

We are fortunate to have two parks to call our own. First, our neighborhood park and namesake: Newman Park. Second, Memorial Park - a designated City of El Paso community park that serves all the surrounding neighborhoods including our own.

Probably all of us in the Newman Park Neighborhood Association have used facilities at Memorial Park many times: the library, the aquatic center, the tennis courts and the park itself.

There are four tennis courts there now. After listening to people who use the Memorial Community Park and receiving their petition, Representative Susie Byrd has proposed that two of the tennis courts be converted to basketball courts thus meeting the needs of more constituents. There are Department of Community and Human Development funds for this project.

As always, there is resistance from a few members of the Manhattan Heights Neighborhood Association who see the park as a neighborhood park exclusive to themselves and their vision of the historic nature of the neighborhood. They propose to re-do the four tennis courts and for there to be no other accommodations for other sports.

A CDBG meeting to consider the proposals is scheduled for Wednesday, March 25th, at 5 p.m. in the City Council Chambers.

District 2 submitted a petition with signatures to make it a 'multipurpose' court and that is what the Department of Parks and Recreation accepted. Parks could not justify spending almost $400k for just tennis courts. Multi-use would accommodate a lot more kids and what they like to do.

Members of the public are invited to attend since what happens at a community park involves many more neighborhoods and people than just the Manhattan Heights neighborhood who often play the "historic" card when it comes to change.

To be fair, if we are going to play that historic card, then let us tear down the aquatic center and rebuild the old swimming hole that so many of us knew growing up. Let us remodel the modern library and cafe facility to be exactly as it was when Mrs. Conrad Bryson was the head librarian and a camera as big as an office copier photographed all checked out books and user cards. In fact, let's start a new smelter on the top hill. After all, the Federal Copper Refinery was the only prominent feature in this area at one time.

Yes, let's keep all tennis courts. Kids in this neighborhood today play tennis exclusively and long for the time when they can become polo players and belong to the Beverly Hills Country Club and talk about credit swaps and other financial derivatives. Who wants to play basketball? There's always tagging.