The new Birch Grove Community Center tennis court is going to get coated this summer, but whether it will have a new slope first is unknown.
Board Chair Paul James said at the May 9, 2013 township board meeting that some “high-quality tennis players” had tried out the court, which slopes away from the centerline on both sides, unlike courts used in top competitions. One of those players, John Wolf of Lutsen, wrote a letter to the town of Tofte afterward.
In the letter, Wolf said, “On one of our first beautiful spring days, Butch Piepho, Gary Gilmore (both of Lutsen), Dale Klobuchar, and I decided to try out the new tennis court at Birch Grove. Our overwhelming first impression of the changes at Birch Grove were, ‘Wow, what a great facility for locals, with the covered picnic area, brick oven, children’s play area, hockey rink and tennis court.’ Our enthusiasm was short-lived once we stepped onto the tennis court.
“We all knew that the court would not be surfaced yet nor lines painted, and we had no trouble with that. It was the terrible court slope that was troubling. Terms such as ‘unacceptable,’ ‘very disappointing,’ and ‘how unfortunate’ were reiterated several times.
“We played for about an hour and enjoyed the exercise, but the consensus was that either the contractor had no knowledge about building the proper slope on a tennis court, or they simply did it to get it done, without pride in their work. In either case, even as adults who play tennis just for recreation, we would not make much use of the court as it lays today. Certainly anyone [who] takes tennis seriously would not play there. If the court was made simply for children to expose them to tennis, it might be fine, but it would give them a poor example of a proper court.”
Wolf said he and the other players recommended that the township consult a professional tennis court installer or someone knowledgeable about engineering tennis courts and then ask the architectural firm in charge of the project, Meyer Group of Duluth, to correct the slope.
“That court is not right,” James said. “If we don’t push it, nobody else is going to push it.”
“It’s not our fault. It’s not [installer Edwin E.] Thoreson’s fault,” supervisor Jim King said. “They did what they were told.” County Commissioner Bruce Martinson said the county Highway Department had measured the court and found that it was built according to specifications.
King said he would work on the issue with ORB Management, the consulting firm that oversaw the project for the township. “We should give them the chance to make it right.”
The Cook County News-Herald spoke with architect Tim Meyer of the Meyer Group on May 14. He said Mattefy Engineering, a subcontractor, designed the court with a higher elevation in the middle on purpose. “It was purely a function of drainage,” he said, adding that the site is on a slope.
Meyer said he would be meeting with Supervisor Olsen and making a plan to address the issue. Some are saying the slope is a problem, Meyer said, while others are saying it’s not. He talked to someone who used to coach a tennis team in Duluth who said it would not be a problem because people playing against each other would be evenly matched. “We’re getting opinions all over the place about how playable the court is,” he said.
Meyer said the slope is more of an issue for competitive players. When the project was in the planning phase, he said, they discussed what level of tennis would be played on it.
Meyer said he would work with the township until the township was satisfied. “We really want to make sure the township is happy with what the end product is, whatever that may be,” he said. “We’ll make sure they’re happy in the end.”
New greenhouse and community garden
The township is putting up a greenhouse, and a community garden might spring up next to it.
Hilja Iverson of Grand Marais has donated a greenhouse structure to the township. The board discussed putting it up and creating space for a community garden near the outdoor classroom outside the Birch Grove Community Center.
Some wetland mitigation may be necessary to create the garden.
The board also discussed finishing touches on improvements to the facility and grounds.
Supervisor Alan “D.C.” Olsen estimated they had $40,000- $80,000 left from the 1 percent sales tax funding provided by the county. The board talked about using it to seal the concrete on the hockey rink and put more chain link fencing around it, fill some holes in the yard around the building, build a timber frame shelter for the outdoor brick oven, do some electrical work in the kitchen, and coat the tennis court.
Clerk Barb Gervais agreed to find out from Cook County Auditor-Treasurer Braidy Powers exactly how much of their allotted funding is left.
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