This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.

08/16/2017 09:15 AM

Westbrook to Remove Fiske Lane Courts, Plant Grass


With eight well-maintained public tennis courts at the Middle School/High School campus, town leaders didn’t view spending funds to rebuild these courts to be a priority. Now with the Board of Selectmen last week voting to remove them, the eyesore that the courts have become will be gone. Photo by Becky Coffey/Harbor News

After last week’s Board of Selectmen (BOS) meeting, the future of Fiske Lane tennis courts will be a green one. With the town’s cost estimate of $100,000 to $150,000 to rebuild and restore the Fiske Lane tennis courts, the BOS voted Aug. 8 to instead remove them.

A key reason, as Selectmen John Hall, IIIo, emphasized in his public comments, is that the town now has eight newer well-maintained tennis courts on McVeagh Road at the Middle/High School campus that the public can use. As a result, town spending to upgrade the Fiske Lane courts was not viewed as a necessary expenditure.

Although several other possible uses for the Fiske Lane court area were discussed in 2016 public meetings of the BOS, including a dog park, the site for new playground equipment, and even a community garden, there was strong neighborhood opposition to alternative uses, so the selectmen voted instead for now to remove the eyesore presented by the deteriorating tennis courts and return the area to grass.

The vote was unanimous.

The BOS tasked the town’s Department of Public Works to provide the vehicles, equipment, and crew to remove the Fiske Lane courts’ asphalt surface, take down the perimeter fencing, and plant grass on the flat site.