Long-awaited refurbished tennis courts unveiled

Gauging by the enthusiasm in the air and the buzz of the crowd Nov. 19, the years of discussions, planning and re-planning have paid off with five refurbished tennis courts at Laguna Beach High School.

City Council members, Laguna Beach Unified School District trustees, members of both Laguna Beach High’s girls’ and boys’ teams, and parents welcomed the new courts, cloaked in blue and maroon paint to align with school colors, as the new LED overhead lights took effect amid waning sunlight.

Mayor Pro Tem Steve Dicterow and board President Ketta Brown shared in slicing a banner held at both ends by tennis team members, who were eventually released after the 20-minute ceremony to volley on the new playing surfaces.

Dicterow said the ceremony symbolized something greater than “having fun.”

“We watch the news and there are such awful things going on and we wonder what kind of world are we going to have,” Dicterow said. “The solution is the community coming together. When I was first elected three years ago this was a major issue. The school district’s needs and the city’s needs were not identical. But they both came together and resolved things. How beautiful does this look?”

Brown praised the work of district Facilities Director Jeff Dixon and contractor Richard Zaino, who oversaw a project that included new overhead lights, vinyl-coated perimeter fences with windscreens and improved drainage by leveling existing slabs.

“I was incredibly skeptical at first,” Brown said. “It shows that putting 10 heads together you can come up with something that is worthwhile.”

The city and school district contributed 70% and 30%, respectively, toward the cost as part of their joint-use agreement. The $1.2-million project included resurfacing five of the six courts and replacing a retaining wall, Dixon said.

Reaching consensus on the courts took some time as trustees initially preferred a more extensive, and potentially costly posttension project.

In this kind of work, steel cables are embedded into concrete slabs and tightened. Experts say the technique helps prevent cracking, and one of the six courts is posttension.

The district received a bid for posttension work that would have bumped up the cost to $1.8 million.

A subcommittee of Brown, trustee Jan Vickers, Mayor Bob Whalen and Councilman Robert Zur Schmiede eventually agreed on a project suitable to both sides.

Throughout the last three years, adult and high school players said the courts had become slippery and unsafe and that cracks were causing balls to bounce in awkward directions.

In an interview after the ceremony, Zaino showed pictures on his cellphone of concrete riddled with cracks after crews stripped the old surfaces.

“These are medium-to-major-sized cracks,” Zaino said while watching players hit back and forth. “Half of this project was demolition and removal. “[Court No. 1] had sunken so the water would hit the wall and couldn’t get out.”

The ceremony drew former high school players and Art Wahl, who coached the boys’ team from 1964 to 1984. Wahl was instrumental in getting the six courts built in 1974. Prior to that time, the school’s two courts were on same side of Park Avenue as the classrooms and Artists Theatre.

“These courts were nothing but a blacktop,” said Wahl, wearing a backpack with a racket handle sticking out. He and his son Jeff played on the courts, covered in an acrylic material called Plexipave, earlier in the week. “For us to see what they have done is fantastic. This is a great facility. I was taken aback how people discussed the facility before this happened. I didn’t think it was that bad of shape.”

Whalen was out of town on business, so he couldn’t make the ceremony, but toured the new courts earlier in the week.

“To have first-class courts for [the high school players] is great,” Whalen said. “I compliment the city and school district on working together to come up with a great renovation at a reasonable cost.”