Forbes and District Tennis Club will be getting new retaining walls around the courts thanks to $12,485 in NSW government funding as part of the 2014/15 Sport Facility Program.
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Member for Orange Andrew Gee made a special visit to the tennis courts on Wednesday to officially announce the grant, which members of the Forbes and District Tennis Club were thrilled with.
“It was a bit of a shock,” treasurer Trevor Drury said.
“We lost our grant application on getting new seats recently - that application didn’t quite fit the criteria, so we were disappointed we didn’t get that but this more than makes up for it.
“This one is probably more important. If we got the other one we might not have got this one, which is more important for safety reasons.”
The money will go towards completely replacing the old wooden retaining walls with new brick ones which president Peter Clifton said will be more weather resistant.
“These have been here for a long time - about 15 years - but the bricks will last longer,” he said.
Mr Clifton said the club plans to use local contractors to complete the work.
“We’ll be getting the job done locally with a local contractor and getting the bricks from one of our sponsors from Parkes,” he said.
“The club will be providing the labour to cut the costs.”
At this stage a date hasn’t been set to begin replacing the walls but Mr Clifton said the aim is to complete the project by the start of the night competition in October this year.
“Being an agricultural community, we need to blend in with the sowing and that and we’ll need to look at the dates of our weekend comps,” he said.
“Nothing can start until after our summer comp ends in April.”
Mr Gee is pleased that the state government can help improve local sporting facilities for the benefit of the whole community.
“It’s wonderful to see our community infrastructure being improved and this club is obviously very strong,” he said.
“We obviously want as many people, particularly young people, participating in sport like tennis.
“If you keep those facilities in good shape, people will use them.”
The NSW government’s Sport Facility Program is designed to assist with funding for the development of local and regional level sport facilities and increase
the availability, standard and quality of these facilities.
It also aims to address the barriers to participation in sport.
“Safer and more accessible venues are crucial in assisting local people staying fit and healthy,” Mr Gee said.
“The funding will assist to increase community participation and encourage families to consider trying sports like tennis.”
Tennis in Forbes is currently going through a bit of a revival with court hire double that of last year.
Forbes and District Tennis Club also have an important partnership with the Forbes Hockey Club who use the bottom courts during hockey season, so this funding will also benefit them.
