Friends of Newton Tennis (FoNT) is circulating this petition on behalf of Newton’s tennis community. At Newton Centre Playground, Newton tennis players have a treasure in their midst: five har-tru, clay courts whose soft surface is most beneficial to seniors and the like. We commend the city for opening the city's hard tennis courts during Phase 1 of the Governor's Reopening Plan.  We would now like the City to open the Newton Centre har-tru courts without further delay.

These courts, unlike the hard courts, require a membership fee to play upon. Newton has hired a tennis professional to operate those courts but he does not want to open them this season because he cannot run his clinics on them due to Covid 19 restrictions. He sees the clay courts, which require maintenance and some supervision, as a losing proposition financially. Instead, he plans to run his programs exclusively on the city's hard courts, if and when he gains city approval. 

By comparison, Brookline’s Amory courts, identical to the Centre and having much the same kind of constituency, are already open and running! Having noted this, FoNT volunteers spoke with area tennis clubs and learned that another tennis professional, who runs programs in a nearby community, is willing to take on the Centre courts if the city Parks, Rec and Culture Dept. agrees. This tennis professional believes that he can at least break even on the enterprise by offering private and semi-private lessons as well as collecting membership fees. To that end, he has submitted a proposal for a one-time opportunity to run the Centre courts this season only due to the unique circumstances.

Yet the City of Newton, well-informed by FoNT of both the open status of Brookline's Amory courts and the existing proposal, have done nothing in response. Meanwhile, dozens of players are angry with the delay in opening the Centre, and they will be furious if the courts don’t open at all.

We don’t understand why no action has been taken to date to get those courts open.

Please sign this petition to request the City to reopen these special courts. The other har-tru and clay courts around town, all private, are open and filled with players. The Centre ought to be as well. The players will be responsible and follow social distancing and best practices, including wearing masks and frequently washing their hands with hand sanitizer, to be sure.