SEVIERVILLE -- A Tennis community comprised of city and county players has come together with the Parks and Recreation Department in hopes of addressing the county's growing need for better courts and more organized play.

More than 20 Sevier County tennis players attended a community interest session with the Sevierille Parks and Recreation Department Tuesday evening to discuss the city and county's growing desire for more tennis programs.

Players say that for the county as a whole, not just Sevierville, courts are overcrowded and in disrepair.

The players, many seeming to filter in from the nearby courts that haven't seen repairs in decades, said they would like to see the eight courts at the Sevierville City Park repaired, organized league play, tournaments, more availability of court time, and less competition with several county schools for the courts themselves.

“We're starting from ground zero folks. We haven't had a tennis program in a while,” warned Bob Parker, Director of Sevierville Parks and Recreation Department.

After about two years of trying to find funding to have the courts repaved, Parks and Recreation has managed to put together about $140,000 in grants and city allocations for the restoration of the eight courts. That puts them at half the projected $300,000 they would need to rebuild the courts to the United States Tennis Association's standards, which Parker added would grant the department an additional $35,000 from a special program if they complied with USTA's best practices.

But that would still leave them about $140,000 short of the needed funds to complete the proposed two-month rebuilding project.

Parker added that it may be a good time to ask for money from the county since several High Schools also use the courts.

Meeting attendees, who said they each represented larger player bases in Seymour, Gatlinburg, Catons Chapel and not just Sevierville, raffled off both fund-raising and leadership ideas quickly after Parker opened the meeting to suggestions.

“I think we need a director,” said Chad McFaler, who was at onetime the city's tennis director before the program faded in popularity in the late 80's. McFaler believes that a tennis director could effectively breath life into the program as well as funding.

Other suggestions included searching for local businesses support for funding and using a volunteer league to generate money through lessons.

Parker is to present the ideas and suggestions to the board of Mayor and Alderman at annual city retreat this weekend.

For information, contact Parks and Recreation at 453-5441. 

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All Sevier County Schools will be starting 2 hours late on Friday, February 11, 2011 due to some roads still having patches of ice. Please drive careful.

E-book and Audiobook Download Class 10:30 a.m., Anna Porter public Library. Registration 436-5588

Although we did not get the amount of snow predicted we do have icy spots this morning. Please drive careful. All Sevier County Schools are opening 2 hours late.