City council will consider reducing the number of tennis courts the city maintains by more than half during Monday night's meeting.
The total will be slashed to 31 from the current 63 if council adopts a staff suggestion outlined in a report stemming from the core services review.
The reduction would save the city $28,000 in annual maintenance costs. Furthermore, it would save $661,000 in upgrades.
Of the 63 courts, 23 are located on city land and 40 on school district properties.
Those facing the chopping block are found in a dozen locations, most of them elementary schools, after the school district agreed with most of city staff's recommendations but asked that those at the high schools be spared.
The courts up for discontinuance are at Clearwood Park, Harwin Elementary, Malaspina Park, Quinson Elementary, South Fort Family Resource Centre, Van Bien Elementary, Vanway Elementary, Westwood Elementary, Eaglenest Park, Fairburn Park, Central Fort George and Fort George Park (Gyro).
Those that would be spared are located at Carrie Jane Gray Park, Ecole Lac des Bois, College Heights Secondary, Heritage (D.P. Todd), Duchess Park, Ridgeview Park, Peden Hill Elementary, Blackburn Elementary, Kelly Road Secondary and North College Park.
The proposals also come after a count was conducted at the sites for two weeks this summer. Each court was visited 33 to 38 times between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. over that time and 270 games were seen being played over that time, with only 33 of them at the courts up for exclusion.
However, at 18 games, usage of Eaglenest Park, up for discontinuance, was greater than that for four on the list of those staff is proposing to spare. It would require $2,550 worth of repairs to upgrade the courts at Eaglenest Park, the same amount it would cost to upgrade Blackburn Park, where just eight games were observed.
Just four games were seen at the Kelly Road and Ridgeview Park courts but they were rated to be in excellent condition with no need for upgrades. The courts at North College Park, also on the to-spare list, hosted 17 games, according to the survey, and would cost $1,550 to upgrade.
No games were observed at four locations requiring the costliest upgrades - Clearwood Park ($108,150), South Fort Family Resource Centre, ($103,700), Malaspina Park ($89,700) and Van Bien Elementary School ($69,300). Other than Eaglenest, games seen at the other locations were in the single digits.
Those proposed for discontinued maintenance could still be flooded for skating during the winter, if requested, staff said in the report.
