Help on way for flooded tennis
TENNIS Queensland is coming to the party to help 23 flood-ravaged tennis clubs in Queensland.
Ken Hick is the Tennis Queensland disaster relief program manager and was in Warwick last week to meet with Warwick Tennis Association officials and Southern Downs Regional Council members.
Mr Hick normally works out of Gladstone as the Central Region community tennis officer and has been given the role of ensuring all clubs are back playing by the beginning of March.
He said while the damage at the international tennis complex at Tennyson was bad, the worst he had seen was at the University of Queensland.
“We are currently trying to get money from Tennis Australia to get clubs operational,” Hick said.
He will also help the Warwick Tennis Association apply for Sport and Recreation Flood Fightback Plan funding where the major grants are $60,000 for facilities and $12,500 for equipment.
Hick said the first aim was to get courts operational again and then in stage two look at repairing clubhouses and make facilities more flood proof. Nine of the 23 flood damaged associations were not covered for flood.
One of the worst-hit clubhouses was in Bundaberg where it had 2.5 metres of water and was flooded for a few days.
The major damage in Warwick was to courts with the surface on the court closest to the corner of Fitzroy and Lyons streets de- stroyed.
Tennis Queensland has a list of approved contractors to avoid any sub-standard court surfaces being laid as clubs re-build.
