FoNT president Tom Friedman with Stephanie Lapham, Mayor Fuller, and commissioner Banks
by Tom Friedman and Bob Jampol
On Wednesday morning, November 17, The Friends of Newton Tennis, Inc. (FoNT) presented a symbolic poster-sized $15,000 check to Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller and Parks, Recreation and Culture Commissioner Nicole Banks. It represents FoNT’s donation to the fund to repair and maintain the Garden City’s 67 tennis courts.
The ceremony took place at Newton South High School’s tennis courts before a crowd of more than 30 tennis enthusiasts. In the audience were city legislators Vicky Danberg, Alicia Bowman, and Holly Ryan as well as local tennis celebrities: Massachusetts native and former top-ranked pro Tim Mayottt; Newton native and former Harvard tennis coach Dave Fish; and Newton resident and New England tennis veteran Brian Lomax.
The proceeds for this donation were generated from Newton’s First Annual Doubles Open, organized by FoNT in collaboration with Newton’s Parks, Recreation and Culture Department. The event, held October 2, attracted 130 participants and ran both morning and afternoon. Stephanie Lapham, city recreation manager, spearheaded the round robin event.
Funds raised came from the generosity of players, private individuals, and local companies, including Mark Development, Northland Investments, Village Bank, VoiceFriend, Boston Ski & Tennis, Garden Remedies, and PerformanceXtra.
In her address at the ceremony, Mayor Ruthanne Fuller declared she realized the importance of the Newton’s tennis courts during the Pandemic when observing residents playing safely with friends across the net. “Tennis is one of the joys of life,” she said. ”It got us through the Pandemic physically, mentally, and spiritually. We are awfully fortunate to live in Newton, a wonderful community blessed with lots and lots of tennis courts.”
Of the donation, Mayor Fuller said, “The city cannot take care of so many courts alone. Friends of Newton Tennis, you got it right. While we do a good job with limited resources, your suggestion of a tennis tournament is a perfect and fun way to support our existing efforts”.
Of the doubles round robin open, Parks, Recreation and Culture Commissioner Nicole Banks said, “I stopped by in October for the event. It was wonderful to see such a great community out here.” Commissioner Banks added, “This donation is amazing, and means so much for the courts. You have my commitment to improve courts and amenities, and continue to repair and maintain the courts for many years.”
In presenting the check, Tom Friedman, President of The Friends of Newton Tennis, said, “Today is important. It is evidence that a public-private partnership can make a difference. While our $15,000 donation to the city will repair only a few courts among the Newton 67 public courts, it foreshadows bigger and bolder initiatives.”
During the past year, The Friends of Newton Tennis has audited the public courts and built an extensive photo archive of current conditions. It has shared the results with members of the City Council, Mayor Fuller, and Commissioner Nicole Banks, and posted them publicly on The Friends of Newton Tennis website: http://bit.ly/friendsofnewtontennis.
FoNT is committed to working in tandem with city government on behalf of the local tennis community. In the midst of this Pandemic, tennis may be the safest sport, especially if played outside, making our collaboration that much more essential at this time.
Congratulations FoNT! It’s a shame the city can’t maintain it’s own tennis courts. Maybe the city should assess the many multi-million homes in our city at market value instead of some below value amount set by the Assessing Department. That extra tax revenue could repair lots of courts! Thanks!
Agreed. In fairness, though, FoNT provides only a small portion of funds spent repairing and replacing courts. In 2008, for example, we raised $40,000 for a project to repair South’s cracking courts whose total price tag ran to $100,000. The city has spent money on court repair since then, including a complete resurfacing of South’s courts in 2017-18.
Raising taxes beyond the level prescribed by Prop 2 1/2 is difficult indeed. Even the most affluent often resist paying more taxes though their portfolios continue to grow. Thus, the city has to work with such funds as it has while searching for grants from the Commonwealth and federal government. Nonprofits and foundations and even parent groups often step in to help, of course, as the soccer community has on numerous occasions.
Great job by Friends of Newton Tennis! But isn’t it problematic from an equity standpoint when private individuals and businesses raise money for prioritized investment in the specific public amenities that are most important to them? I suspect that there may be other sports, playgrounds, services, infrastructure, etc. loved by amateurs who might not have the privilege or benefactors to organize similar fundraising efforts.
Michael, Newton has over 50+ Friends or neighborhood groups that supplement Parks & Rec facilities as well as schools, e.g. Newton School Foundation and PTOs. There is zero selfishness or exclusivity associated with Friends of Newton Tennis. Our efforts increase access to Newton public tennis courts throughout the city, by making every court as playable as possible. There are no fees for hardcourts in Newton so when Friends of Newton Tennis repair courts, we allow more people (including 1,000s of young children and teenagers) to play for free and enjoy themselves. Yes, many Friends of Newton Tennis’ 100+ members play on the city courts, too, but this represent a very small percentage of people who benefit from our hard-work and generosity. We simply do this because we love the game tennis, and it is the right thing to do (you might recall Rousseau’s concept of the social contract)?
Thomas, I in no way mean to diminish Friends of Newton Tennis’ commendable achievements. The city is much better off for what you’ve done; if you weren’t as generous then you could have easily chosen to direct the money toward private courts for your exclusive use, but instead you’ve chosen to improve facilities for the entire community. Chapeau to you and your colleagues.
I guess I should’ve bitten my tongue since this is a very positive story that doesn’t deserve to be detracted from, but I was just considering the hypothetical view of say, some kid on the other end of the playground dribbling a basketball on a potholed court, shooting hoops at an off-kilter rim, who doesn’t have the resources to organize and fundraise. From that perspective, investment in public facilities can easily end up being prioritized according to the desires and goals of the wealthiest benefactors. But hopefully the basketball courts in Newton are all in stellar shape, in which case it’s a moot point and these are just the incoherent musings of a curmudgeon.
We at Friends of Newton Tennis are all amateur tennis enthusiasts, and I was as surprised and delighted as can be when some serious tennis professionals happened to attend the event. Yes, I do coach girls’ tennis at South. But as a player I am just a neighborhood hacker!
Groups of people coalesce all the time to fundraise for their pet projects. I am also on the board of Friends of Cold Spring Park, which has raised thousands of dollars to repair the deteriorating trails. The city more than matched our donations, as usually happens in these collaborations. No one is stopping anybody from organizing to support their passions.
Tennis is a great sport, and a lifelong one as well.
It’s a social activity as well, and, once you schedule a game with another player, you can’t just blow it off like you can going to the gym….
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Glad to see the support for upkeep!
Just to clarify, I wasn’t making any observation about the involvement of professional players – I only put amateur in italics because I thought that when it’s being used in the sense of “devotee or admirer,” it was pronounced with the hard T as it is in French (where that’s the primary definition). I may be wrong though.
Bob J-appreciate your enthusiasm and civic involvement. Perhaps, I didn’t explain my point about the city missing out on tax dollars due to low assessments on multi-million dollar properties. Say for example this one from West Newton-a house was bought for 3.95 million in 2015. The city assessment didn’t reach that level until FY 22. So for five years this property owner paid less tax that could have helped out with tennis courts or some other worthy endeavor. I’m sure there are many other properties that are similar. Thank you.