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By Angela Brown

COVID-19 precautions

Outdoor tennis courts to remain closed in city until restrictions ease

Apr 14, 2021 | 5:17 PM

There will be no lob, no backhand or volley for the time being.

The City of North Battleford announced at this week’s council meeting the city is not able to open its outdoor tennis courts for use currently due to the province’s COVID-19 restrictions for physical activity.

Director of Parks and Recreation Cheryl DeNeire reported currently games are not permitted on the courts.

“We’ve been receiving requests to open up our tennis courts and the difficulty in doing so right now is the restrictions the SHA (Saskatchewan Health Authority) have,” she said.

The current restrictions can only be enforced if the courts were staffed. The city’s courts are free to use, operated on a first come, first served basis, but are not staffed.

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“The restrictions are in place right now until April 26, so they may be lessened then,” DeNeire said.

Currently, games and competition are not permitted under the province’s rules. Individuals cannot volley a ball to one another since that is considered a game too. Individuals under age 18 can only take part in conditioning or skills training. A maximum of eight people per group requires each individual distancing by three metres from another person, which is basically one person per court on each side in that area. They must each wear a mask. And for adults, there are further restrictions. Conditioning and skills training must only be by ball-fed machines or an instructor working with the player.

“We don’t have staff, we have no way of enforcing what is happening there in a confined space because it is fenced,” DeNeire said.

As a result, she said administration is not recommending the city open the outdoor tennis courts until some type of limited play is permitted and some restrictions have been lifted by the SHA.

“Unfortunately that is where we are at currently with the tennis courts. As soon as it opens up more we will jump on the opportunity,” DeNeire said.

People can go to the Field House that is staffed for skills development, to hit a ball against the wall for example. But again no type of play or volley between individuals is allowed.

Some members of council enquired whether the province’s new Business Response Team that helps businesses with COVID-19 information might be able to help.

City Manager Randy Patrick said the issue is the city owns the tennis court facility, which is gated. So the city is liable for it. If there were any health restriction breaches the city would be fined.

On why the skatepark can be open but the tennis courts can’t, DeNeire said the skatepark activity is considered by the province as individual play involving one person and a skateboard. While the tennis courts are considered under the physical activity guidelines which have different restrictions.

“That is the response we have received from the Business Response Team,” she said. “They are not saying you cannot open your tennis courts. But they are saying you have to follow all these rules. So if you are under 18 these are the rules, if you are over 18 these are the rules. And the only way to do that is to have them monitored, and [ours] are not monitored.”

Mayor David Gillan recognized administration’s concerns that the issue of not being able to open the outdoor tennis courts is due to the province’s tight regulations.

“So it’s unworkable. It’s just we can’t find a solution here,” he said.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW