The Leitchfield City Council on Monday night heard from several people who are in favor indoor tennis courts being including in the proposed recreation center/sports plex.
In a public forum the council hosted on September 4 (which resulted in overwhelming support from the community and community leaders for a rec center), Council member Dennis Fentress said that after speaking with officials from several counties that have recreation centers, four possible uses of the facility were eliminated due to poor cost/benefit analysis results: An indoor soccer facility, indoor tennis, a workout gym, and a pool.
Speaking passionately at Monday night’s council meeting in favor of including indoor tennis courts in a rec center was longtime Grayson County High School tennis coach Sherry Vincent.
Vincent began her remarks by noting that current players wrote letters to the council in support of tennis courts being included in the proposed facility. She added that current and former players were present at the meeting and were willing to speak to the council about their concerns.
“Our main purpose and focus here is not to be overlooked,” she said. “Tennis, and it’s not just about the Cougar tennis program, it’s about the lifetime sport and fitness and activities. If you’re not familiar with the research: Tennis is the number one fitness sport in the nation, and just recently surged from 25 to 35 percent in participants.
“I just strongly encourage you … we (tennis and tennis players) are strong in the community history. I’m not saying that tennis (should dominate the facility). That’s not our nature and that’s not our purpose. But (our purpose) is to make sure that we are looked at as a tennis community; Grayson County and the city of Leitchfield as well, that we get recognized in this potential upcoming sports complex and not be overlooked.”
One of the speakers who followed Vincent was two-year GCHS tennis player Roger Pierce, who spoke on the convenience of having an indoor tennis facility in Grayson County.
“My dad takes me to Owensboro every weekend, so I have a place to play indoors,” Pierce said. “I just think it would be a great opportunity for everybody to play indoors here; right where we live. It would be a lot easier for everybody. My goal is to play college tennis and it’d be hard to make that happen if you don’t have somewhere to play all the time.”
Adding credence to the pro-indoor tennis court speakers, Mayor Harold Miller noted that the high school tennis team practices in the halls of GCHS during inclement weather.
Of course, the council’s research into a potential rec center/health plex remains in the early stages. The proposed facility would be constructed on 10.4 acres of land across from the Aquatic Center donated by the Grayson Co. Healthcare Foundation.
Fentress previously presented the recreation center idea to T&T Construction to get an idea on how much the facility would cost to build, with the company estimating the cost at between $8 and $10 million (another construction company was also contacted and agreed with T&T’s estimate). The rec center equipment, Fentress said, would cost approximately $1 million.
He added, based on other recreation centers in Kentucky, it would cost about $360,000 per year to maintain the building (estimated to be between 40,000 and 50,000 square feet). That figure includes two full-time employees and four part-time workers.
He also said that the rec center in Muhlenberg County makes about $50,000 per year in concession sales and approximately $70,000 per year renting the facility for various tournaments.
(Photo l-r: Grayson Co. HS tennis coach Sherry Vincent, GCHS tennis player Roger Pierce)
By Ken Howlett, News Director
Contact Ken at ken@k105.com
