Aldermen on Monday are scheduled to approve two improvement projects for Lovelace Park in northwest Evanston.
City staff decided to move up planned rehab work on the park’s tennis courts after receiving notice last month from the United States Tennis Association that the group has decertified them for use in city programming because of their deteriorated condition.
In a memo to aldermen, Public Works Director Dave Stoneback says that over time large cracks have opened up in the asphalt surface of the six courts at the park “to the point of becoming trip hazards in the playable areas.”
The city had listed the tennis court project in its five-year capital improvement program, but hadn’t planned to do the work this year.
Stoneback says that without the USTA certification the city’s tennis programs can’t use the courts. The resurfacing work can’t be done until the temperature is consistently above 55 degrees, he says, so the work is now scheduled for June and July, assuming the aldermen approve the plans.
He says the city hopes to rent court space at Evanston Township High School for recreation programs this spring and summer, but those courts wouldn’t be available for city programs in the fall.
Stoneback says the project will involve milling off the asphalt surface of the courts and laying a new asphalt layer which would be topped with textured acrylic colored surfacing.
The project will also require replacement of the fence around the courts.
The tennis court project is estimated to cost $275,000.
The aldermen are also scheduled to approve a $107,000 contract with Sumit Construction of Chicago to replace asphalt paving around the pond in Lovelace Park and replace railings and park benches around the pond. That work is scheduled to be substantially completed by early summer.