The City of Bedford had 6 highly used tennis courts at Bedford Boys Ranch. The park has shut down to renovate the park(70 million budget) and instead of renovating or leaving the tennis courts as is, they are being demolished and removed permanently.  

This will leave the city with zero public tennis courts. 4 tennis courts are available at 2 junior highs and do not have lights and are more worn than the 6 public ones that are being demolished.

The 6 courts were included in the original proposed 70 million renovation budget. Why were they removed? They wanted to save money and pulled the 1 million designated for the 6 courts + pro shop. This and the rink+outdoor basketball hoops(also 1 million) were the smallest budget items on the initial plan. Both were removed.

How was this decided? Not by a vote by community residents, nor by a council vote.  It was decided by a consultant company reviewing a survey that was on the City of Bedford's website.  Bedford has approximately 50,000 residents. The survey had 1,155 responses which were interpreted by them to show the tennis courts were a medium priority. The survey was available on the city website from 1/31/19 - 3/4/19. The decision was made based on 2.3% of the population's responses.

Here are the numbers of tennis courts in surrounding cities in order by population.

City- Total courts
Southlake  - 21
Colleyville  - 26
Hurst        - 31
Bedford     - 4
Grapevine  - 33
Euless         - 27
North Richland Hills -  32

The City of Bedford is behind in providing amenities and perks to its residents. The updates to the park is a great expenditure and attempt to catch up to neighboring cities. A renovation renews what is existing. This renovation is not that and is instead taking away amenities from us. This would force tennis players that do it for fun and exercise to go to the surrounding cities. I can vouch that our city courts were filled with families and friends every evening. It has been especially busy with Covid because it provides a socially distant and safe way to play a sport and have fun outside.  It is obvious that the decision was not determined by someone going outside to look at the popularity of the courts and the rink.

Take action - I will be speaking at the City Council meeting Tues.10/27/20 to express concerns, facts, and question the decision making of the removal of the tennis courts. I don't think the interests of our residents were heard nor solicited appropriately.  I received one email soliciting the survey on 2/6/19 which stated this:

Phase Next Survey
The City of Bedford would like the public’s input on a survey to help determine parks, recreation, aquatics, senior, and art & entertainment priorities for the community that can be utilized for the master plan currently known as Bedford Boys Ranch Park – Phase Next.  The survey will take 5-10 minutes to complete.  Click here for the survey.

The communication did not state, 'If you don't respond, or don't list your activity as a High priority, your amenity will be removed permanently."  If they had been at risk of removal, communication should've been made clear.  Flyers should have been posted on the tennis courts, multiple emails stating that amenities may be removed from the plan.  

Goal :  2310 signatures (double the amount of survey responses)  

Let's show we want our City courts back!