Archives > Flower Mound Leader > News
Print
E-mail
Comment
Rate
RSS
Share
Supporters make racket for tennis center; council approves partnership to assist small businesses
By Chris Roark, croark@starlocalnews.com
A room full of tennis enthusiasts showed their support Monday for a tennis center being built in Flower Mound sooner rather than later.
Several residents urged the Flower Mound Town Council to move up plans for a full-service tennis center.
In a 2010 survey, residents ranked a tennis center No. 9 out of 13 most desired amenities for the Parks and Trails Master Plan.
Sims said a tennis center is on the town’s capital improvement projects (CIP) list but that a date for the tennis center hasn’t been determined since it’s so far out.
Monday, the crowd encouraged bumping the center up on the list for several reasons. For one, they said the town simply doesn’t have the capacity to meet the demand. The town’s tennis league uses four courts at Leonard Johns Park and one court at Glenwick Park.
“People get frustrated because there’s not a place to play, and the courts we do have here are reserved all the time,” said resident Randy Robertson.
Resident Jim Musil plays tennis in Farmers Branch because he said the few courts that are available in Flower Mound are not at the level as other cities nearby.
Musil also said having a tennis center would open opportunities for a variety of events.
“With a fulltime staff manager, you can have the availability for tennis leagues, drills, individual lessons and activities for all age groups,” Musil said.
Musil said cities such as Southlake benefit economically from their tennis center since they can host large national tournaments.
He also said when 400 players sign up for a large tournament in Southlake, nearly half of them will be sent to surrounding centers for the initial matches.
“Southlake has 27,000 people, and Flower Mound has 65,000 people,” Musil said. “But Southlake has a 19-court facility, which is a flagship facility. They are able to host professional tournaments. Why can’t we have the same thing?”
Frank Ford, who runs a league in Flower Mound, said the town can’t host events from three main leagues in the Metroplex – USTA, Women’s TCD and NETT. He said those three combined bring in 12,000 players to the Metroplex.
Mike Carter, a United States Tennis Association (USTA) representative from Austin, said USTA often provides a grant up to 20 percent for a facility and that USTA Texas can give a grant up to 5-10 percent on top of that.
Mayor Tom Hayden urged the crowd to attend the Parks, Arts and Library Services (PALS) Board meeting March 7 since the board makes recommendations on the parks priority list.
“We have $22 million budgeted for all of these projects, but our annual budget for the items is $1.5 million,” Hayden said. “So it all comes down to priorities.”
Also Monday, the council approved a memorandum of understanding between the town and the University of North Texas.
The partnership is for Phase Zero, a small business innovation research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology (STTR) program.
SBIRs and STTRs are federally funded grant programs designed to help small businesses in the startup process, which includes applying for grants.
The program provides money to help businesses prepare high-quality applications. The program also offers access to UNT professors within a particular field and other resources to assist in the application process.
The medical field will be targeted, though others can be included.
Only Flower Mound businesses are eligible. Those interested can apply to the town, and a committee will determine which applicants are selected and for how much. The maximum amount an applicant can receive is $5,000. The money can be used to defray costs of preparing the proposal and to help improve the application.
“This is not about building up the University of North Texas,” said UNT President Lane Rawlins. “This is about using the resources that we have to be a greater service to the community. There are a number of agencies that provide funds for small businesses and small business development, research and all kinds of things. Dealing with those agencies and the federal government takes an incredible amount of expertise, and we have that.”
Officials expect money to the first applicant to be awarded by this summer.
For information on the program, contact Mark Wood, the town’s director of economic development, at mark.wood@flower-mound.com.
The following are comments from the readers.
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
In no way do they represent the view of Starlocalnews.com
You must register with a valid email to post comments.
Only your Member ID will be posted with the comments.
Only your Member ID will be posted with the comments.
Registered users sign in here:
Become a Registered User
- Return to: News «
- Home «
- Top of Page ^
