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Langara Tennis Group |
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Translation by Sam Chang a member of The Vancouver Public Indoor Tennis Advocacy and the Langara Tennis Group
Rough Translation is as follows From Sing Tao Daily, Saturday, Nov 8th, 2008:
GROUP URGES TO BUILD FIRST (PUBLIC) INDOOR TENNIS CENTRE (IN VANCOUVER)
As the municipal election drawing close, some community groups are expressing their requests to the candidates to pay attention to their exercise and recreation needs. A group of tennis enthusiasts are urging for the support of Vancouver Parks Board Commissioner candidates for the building of the first public indoor tennis centre in Vancouver.
The president of Langara Tennis Group, Terry Kong pointed out on Friday that presently there is no public indoor tennis facility in Vancouver. All public courts are outdoor, and this is a headache for the tennis players during rainy season. In fact in Greater Vancouver, there are public tennis courts in North Vancouver, Burnaby and Richmond; but there is non in Vancouver.
In view of this, BC Tennis, Langara Tennis Group, False Creek Tennis Club, Queen Elizabeth Tennis Club and many other tennis clubs have formed a group and are urging the Vancouver Parks Board to build a public indoor tennis centre. They submitted their proposal to the Parks Board in January this year and received good support. However, at that time the Capital Plan of the year was already drafted and the details of the proposal could not be considered further.
According to Terry Kong, the next step after the proposal is for the city's engineering department to work on the feasibility studies, such as finding a suitable location for the facilities, and this can be done only after January next year.
After the civic election, the members of the Parks Board may be different. So, it is possible that the proposal which had the current Parks Board's agreement to further studies could be shelved if the new Parks Board Commissioners object to it.. In view of this, recently the group's representatives are attending civic election candidates question and answer meetings frequently and requesting the candidates to express their views on this project.
Although it's often to see that election promises may not materialize and Terry is worried that progress of this project may be delayed, he is confident that with sufficient support from the residents, the Parks Board will consider building a public indoor tennis centre. As an example Terry pointed out that about 8 years ago, the outdoor tennis courts next to the Langara Golf Course and Langara College was in terrible shape. A group of tennis enthusiasts took action and collected good number of signatures requesting to resurface the courts, and finally budget was allocated and the courts restored to excellent condition.
The public can enter the website http://www.vancouverpublictennis.com to view and urge to build the first public indoor tennis facility in Vancouver.
Ends Translation
I am glad that I participated in taking this step of raising public awareness of this project. I am confident that if all of us work enthusiastically towards this project, this indoor tennis centre will stand before us in the not distant future!
Enthusiastically
Sam Chang Sing Tao Daily, Saturday, Nov 8th, 2008 is available at all public news stand next to the Sun/Province |
