Tennis and basketball courts are expected to be in play at Salmon Arm’s Klahani Park by late spring.
City council voted March 8 to spend $57,000 on tennis court resurfacing work with Tomko Sports Surfaces Inc from Richmond for a late May or early June completion date.
The city’s director of engineering and public works, Rob Niewenhuizen, told council that staff looked at resurfacing the last portion of the existing courts last year but the pricing came in substantially over budget.
The park, located at 6391 10th Ave. SE, currently has two baseball diamonds, washrooms, a gazebo, a newly upgraded playground, a fenced dog park, six pickleball courts and two deteriorated tennis courts. Before the pickleball courts there were also basketball courts.
Niewenhuizen said the park has been busy, especially during the pandemic, and staff have seen a push to have the tennis courts resurfaced. Aside from the tennis club, there are only five public use tennis courts at Salmon Arm Secondary’s Jackson campus and Shuswap Middle School.
“Working with Tomko, they’ve come back and helped us out substantially,” Niewenhuizen said. “So we are looking at getting tennis courts put onto the courts as well as the basketball hoops.”
Read more: Klahani Park courts to be resurfaced as part of city’s 2020 projects
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He said because the asphalt is in poor condition, staff looked at removing basketball to meet the available budget, but Tomko was able to provide a better cost to ensure all the work could be done.
It was a single-source contract. Although there are other suppliers for the product, some in the Lower Mainland, he said staff have had lots of discussions with the City of Kelowna which uses Tomko a lot.
“We think we’re getting fair pricing,” he said.
“They have an outstanding reputation for this type of work through the region. We have been in discussions with Tomko since last year regarding this project and within the last couple weeks we were able to have their quoted price match our available budget to complete all works.”
He explained Tomko has done several projects in Salmon Arm including playing surfaces at the tennis club, the Jackson campus, the pickleball courts at Klahani Park and, more recently, the tennis and basketball courts at the middle school.
Prior to council’s unanimous approval of the contract, Mayor Alan Harrison remarked: “I’ll support the motion as Tomko has done the work for the tennis club, indoor and outdoor, and they do high quality work. And they’re as local as you can get for this product.”
marthawickett@saobserver.net
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