Sorry state of public tennis courts prompts call for a new set

The city's parks department hopes to build new tennis courts to replace its aging outdoor facility.

Demand for updated courts picked up recently. Around the time of the Wimbledon tournament, some local high school kids put together a little tennis tournament of their own.

"I was embarrassed that they didn't have a better place to play," said park superintendent Tom Von Seggern.

Kasey Kantor, sports director at the Cheyenne County Community Center, where the courts are located, confirmed that the courts see a fair amount of use, with a few couples playing regularly during the day.

In an ideal world, the city would build completely new courts, Von Seggern said. He must wait to make any plans until after the location for the new swimming pool is decided. He wants to make sure a new tennis court location would not be isolated from other parks facilities.

"Neighboring towns have such nice ones," Von Seggern said.

Sidney's courts were repainted around four years ago, but he estimates that the actual courts are more than 30 years old.

Sidney's skate park was built in 2003 and replaced two of the city's tennis courts at that time. The skate park's use has waned in the past few years, he said.

Building new courts away from the skate park site would be ideal if the city could find suitably flat property for them, Von Seggern said. No official plans have yet been made.