Net gain for Atlantic Beach

Village's tennis center on track for 2019

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With improvements being made to the Atlantic Beach Tennis Center, the village is serving up a new community hub. Hurricane Sandy damaged the center, and as the storm’s sixth anniversary approaches, the end of the project is nearly in sight.

“We’re about 75 percent complete with our renovation of our handicapped-accessible tennis center building,” said Atlantic Beach Mayor George Pappas, adding that officials are targeting spring 2019 for completion.

The project was funded with a combination of insurance money from Sandy and a $100,000 State and Municipal Facilities Program grant, which State Assemblywoman Melissa Miller (R-Atlantic Beach) helped secure. The money can be used only for a set list of projects, Miller said, and in this case it was directed to making sure the center’s restrooms and entrances and exits meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Advocacy for disabled people has been a focal point of Miller’s personal and political life because her son, Oliver, 18, suffered a stroke in utero and has had a range of physical issues — traumatic brain injury, cognitive disabilities, reoccurring seizures and blindness.

The project also involved opening up the center’s indoor spaces so it can serve as a meeting place in the event of another Sandy-like disaster, “After Sandy we learned we need to have one place where people can come to get information on what to do next or to get supplies,” Miller said. “Enough people couldn’t fit in the town hall, so if something happens, people will have a place to go.”

To expand the building’s capacity, the village removed one of the tennis courts and replaced it with a basketball court last summer. Pappas said that the board of trustees is considering adding a hockey rink as well. He and Miller both said they hope this might help the center become more of a community center, where young people have a place to go and take part in positive activities, ideally keeping them away from drugs or other trouble.

Shabir Mohamed, the center’s CEO and director of tennis, said that the new courts had been a hit so far. “Kids use the new court all the time,” he said. “It’s a very positive thing. They have somewhere right around the corner from them to play.”

More courts were potentially on the chopping block until a village board meeting last October. Officials were considering a $2 million overhaul of the facility that would have included the removal of as many as six of the 13 clay courts in favor of stormwater drainage improvements, including the addition of a park made of material that would allow water to pass through easier than it does clay.

The money would have come from the Governor’s Office of Storm Recovery, which requires improvements that will mitigate future flooding. The village board voted against the measure because, Pappas said, “There were too many delays and changes to the project, and we thought it was vital to our village to get the tennis center renovation complete. There were also many restrictions on how the funds could be spent, as well as usage of the center once the project was complete.”

Shifting its focus, the village has worked to make the center compliant with the disabilities act, and opened up the internal layout to better accommodate larger groups. There are improvements to the center’s lounge area being made, which has the potential to become a community hub, where residents can gather to play board games or socialize.

Arup Dutta, one of the center’s instructors, said he would like to see more residents use the facility once the renovations are complete. “I hope that we get more people down here,” he said.

Have an opinion on the Atlantic Beach Tennis Center? Send your letter to the editor to jbessen@liherald.com.