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2023 Tennis Court Audit

Performed and Reported

by The Friend of Newton Tennis, Inc. (FoNT)

June 2023

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Table of Contents:

1. Summary of Results
2. Criteria Used for Analysis
3. Accessibility
4. Court Rankings
5. Key Attributes
6. Clay Courts
7. Usage
8. Recommended Priorities
9. Appendix –
• Audit Summary and links to detailed audits and accompanying photos
• Audit Committee Members
10. Comments and Questions

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Summary of Results

• During the Spring of 2023, the FoNT Public Court Management Committee assessed all 67 of the municipal courts in Newton.
• The 2023 assessment criteria was the same as last year – with the addition of an “Accessibility” attribute. This attribute was added at the request of the PRC Commissioner and included the following features for the tennis courts and surrounding area:
• 4 ft gates and doorways – gates should swing a minimum of 90 degrees
• Paths to the courts should be a minimum of 4 ft and a clear path from the parking lot to the courts should be accessible without any steps.
• Distance between net posts should be 4 ft.

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Summary of Results –Cont’d

• Due to further deterioration of some courts and court maintenance of others, there was some significant differences in court condition in relation to the 2022 Court Audit.
• The courts in the worst condition are the following (in order of worst to least worst):
1. Pellegrini Park
2. Burr Park
3. Memorial Playground
4. Weeks Playground
5. Angier School
• As we will discuss further in this report, these are not necessarily the courts FoNT recommends for maintenance and improvement – as court usage will also play a major factor in our recommendations.
• We would also like to point out that Newton South – some of the most used courts in the City including for school practices and matches have some courts that are considered a safety hazard – which may result in liability for the city.

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Summary of Results –Cont’d

Newton South – Courts 1 and 7 Safety Hazard - 1-2 inch crack

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Criteria used for analysis:

• The FoNT audit team evaluated the courts based upon the following 10 attributes:
1. Nets – condition, straps, anchors
2. Cleanliness – Drainage
3. Cleanliness – Mildew
4. Cleanliness – Trash
5. Surface Condition – Worn
6. Surface Condition – Cracks
7. Surface Condition – Lines
8. Fence
9. Viability of Pickleball on courts
10. Accessibility

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Accessiblity Rankings:

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Accessibility is a new attribute included in the audit at the request of the PRC Commissioner.

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The following Accessibility attributes were included in the ranking to the left:

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1. 4 ft gates and doorways – gates should swing a minimum of 90 degrees
2. Paths to the courts should be a minimum of 4 ft
3. A clear paved path from the parking lot to the courts should be accessible without any steps.
4. Distance between net posts should be 4 ft.

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The courts with the lowest ranking (worst) generally failed accessibility due to access from a parking lot to the courts.

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Possible new funding angle:

If we can argue for court improvements for adaptive programs, this might serve as another avenue for PRC tennis funding from Mayor and City Council. 

PRC has a relationship with Athletes Unlimited, which includes a youth and adult program.

There are Veterans Admin grants for local adaptive sports programs and USTA starter grants for local adaptive programming, but unclear if these grants apply to facility improvements.

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Overall Court Ranking (color coded):

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Key Attributes:

• While the Audit assessed the courts based upon 10 attributes, the major needs for maintenance are focused on two attributes that directly affect both safety and playability. These are:
• Cracks
• Depressions
• Along these dimensions, we found cracks at most courts and depressions at many courts.
• Those courts with the worst Cracks/Depressions issues are:

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• Cold Spring
• Memorial Park
• Weeks
• Burr
• Pellegrini
• Newton South

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• Note: Halloran was not included in this analysis as they are scheduled to be removed.

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• The good news is that courts that have been resurfaced are rated at a higher level on these two dimensions than non-resurfaced courts.

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Clay Courts:

• While it may appear that the 110+ year old Newton Centre Clay Courts are costly to maintain, in actuality Clay Courts are less expensive to maintain than hard courts:

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• Never need capital outlay for resurfacing/crack repair
• Maintenance is funded by membership fees and contractor clinics/lessons
• Aging population prefers clay courts to hard courts as the softer surface is easier on the body

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Usage:

• While the focus of the audit was on court condition, court maintenance should take into account both the condition of the courts and more importantly, Newton resident usage of the courts.
• Our qualitative assessment of highest court utilization is as follows:
1. Newton North and South
2. Newton Clay Courts
3. Cold Spring Park
4. Warren West
5. Newton Highlands
6. Bobby Braceland
7. Weeks Park

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Recommended Priorities:

While tennis courts require regular maintenance (including weekly brushing, seasonal washing and frequent trash removal), FoNT recognizes there are city budget limitations. Based upon usage and court conditions, FoNT recommends the following near-term priorities for the City:

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1. Repairing courts with good “infrastructure”

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• Repair surface cracks at North and Lower Falls. These new courts should still be under warranty. The photos section of the audit spreadsheet identifies every crack at these locations sorted by court.

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• Newton South (crack repair and resurfacing)

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• Remedy poorly performed repairs in the past

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• Cabot (failing Riteway crack repair and resurfacing and new transverse cracks)
• Weeks Park (failing Riteway crack repair and resurfacing)

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• Mold, mildew and algae issues of higher rated courts

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• Newton South High School 
• Angier School 
• Newton Highlands Playground courts 

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Appendix:

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Detailed audit by court location:�(Click on the court link to view the detailed auditor review for that court. Click on the photos to view associated photos of the courts. Attribute scoring is 1-5 with 1 being poor and 5 Excellent - except where noted)

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Audit Committee Members:

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The 2023 Tennis Court Audit was performed April 2023 by the following FoNT members:

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• Junaid Marvi
• George Adams
• Tom Friedman
• Bruce Baron

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Comments and Questions?

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