The tennis courts in Lions’ Park in Clearwater are getting a face lift. And the process might be closer to “plastic surgery.”

 

=The new surface is Versacourt, a polypropylene plastic material that comes in interlocking squares.

 

Last August, the Clearwater City Council approved the expenditure of almost $40,000 for the product, which is being placed over the existing court. The new surface isn’t anchored to the ground, but will actually float. That means it expands and contracts as the temperature changes.

 

That didn’t happen with the old surface, which developed dangerous cracks that kept growing over time.

 

In 2012, the council debated whether to tear up the entire surface and pave it over completely. They had already allocated $60,000 from the local sales tax to replace the surface.

 

But a problem with the language of the local sales tax bill prevented the city from using the money for that purpose.  

 

Instead, the council voted to pay SurFacePro $9,500 to temporarily repair the surface cracks to make the courts usable. But since then, the cracks have reappeared - some more than two inches wide and deep.

 

The decision to use Versacourt should eliminate any future surface issues, regardless of what happens to the original surface.

 

The product was delivered late last year, but the council decided to wait to install the surface until this spring.

 

After using a lift truck to place 17 pallets of Versacourt inside the tennis court fencing, the Clearwater Maintenance department began filling the cracks and installing the Versacourt Tuesday - in-between thunderstorms.

 

They had to use a diagram to figure out the layout.

 

“We had to do a little bit of guesswork. It isn’t spelled out for our application,” said Maintenance Supervisor John Schmidt. “But once you figure out where to start it isn’t bad.”

 

The new surface will have multiple uses. It’s set up for tennis, but there are three pickleball courts. And the net poles can accommodate tennis, pickleball, badminton and volleyball.

 

“We’re hoping with this design, we’ll get some excellent use out of the courts,” Kress last year when the council gave the go-ahead. “If it goes well, we can use it over in Eldorado Park, too.”