Tennis anyone?

Two years ago, when the tennis courts at nearby Woodland Park were resurfaced, I was green with envy.  Seeing those bright blue rectangular boxes outlined in brilliant white made me wish our tennis courts at the Wallingford Playfield would get an upgrade, too.

Well, if you’ve recently been to the Wallingford Playfield, you’ll know my wish came true.  Our two little courts have been repainted.  And they look mah-velous!

But wait!  Before you get too excited in thinking that our courts have been completely dug-up and resurfaced like the ten courts at Woodland Park, they haven’t.  The Woodland Park project in 2008 was a much larger scale and cost a little over $1 million, while the repainting project here in Wallingford is what Seattle Parks and Rec Planning and Development deem a “small scale renovation”, with a $100,000 budget shared between two other parks in the city.

I spoke with Kelly Davidson, project manager for Seattle Parks and Rec Planning and Development, who explained to me that in 2005, SPARC took an inventory and assessment of all 140 of the tennis courts in the city.  They then prioritized the 10-20 courts that needed to be resurfaced, honing in on which ones were in the worst condition. The Wallingford courts were actually added onto the small scale renovation project at the last minute because SPARC received good bids for the courts at the other two parks. The Wallingford courts were repainted on September 7, and while the surface cured for ten days, they repaired the nets.

With fall in the air, now is the best time to take advantage of the newly repainted courts.  If you do, let us know how you like ’em.