Aug. 25—CUMBERLAND — Public tennis courts at the Mason Sports Complex in South Cumberland have fallen into disrepair and their future remains uncertain, according to city officials.
The courts are among several other athletic fields in the complex, which includes baseball and soccer fields, a playground and a BMX track. Now, the tennis courts show gaping cracks with weeds growing from them, leaving the surface unplayable.
City officials say a combination of unfortunate circumstances has contributed to the current state of the courts. Most recently, the site was used as a staging area for contractors performing storm water drainage work at the site, which lasted more than two years. The work prevented city maintenance crews from gaining access to the area.
Additionally, the court surface has not fared well due to damp soil beneath it and freezing winter temperatures.
"The reason they are in the shape they are in is we weren't able to get to them because of the company working down there had the whole area taken up with the first phase of the overflow project," said Jason Deal, Cumberland's chief of maintenance. "Those courts have the flood plain right there as well. It does lay wet. It is a marshy area. Moisture under (the) concrete (surface) with freezing and thawing is not good for concrete. That is part of the reason why (the surface) cracked."
The city of Cumberland embarked on the first phase of a $55 million project in 2018 to build a pipeline and storage tank system to address the city's issue with stormwater runoff.
The city contracted with Leonard S. Fiore, Inc. for the installation of a 5 million storage tank beneath basketball courts that were located at the complex. The storage tank is designed to hold stormwater and sewer overflow during periods of heavy rain.
Cumberland has antiquated underground piping grids known as a combined sewer overflow system. CSO systems features stormwater and sewage lines that are combined. The aging CSO systems allow excess overflow effluent to be released into the surrounding waterways when pressure builds during heavy rains. Locally, overflow effluent is released at stations known as CSO outfalls along the Potomac River.
The work to bury the storage tank has been finished, but construction of a 78-inch pipeline from CSO outfalls in the city to the tank beneath the complex has not. Once a pipeline is installed to carry the city's overflow to the storage tank, the excess overflow problem will be largely fixed. The excess effluent in the storage tanks will ultimately be processed at the nearby wastewater treatment plant before being released into the river.
The state of Maryland has approved the project. City officials hope the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will give final approval for the remaining phases in the coming months.
Bobby Smith, lead city engineer, said the acreage the tennis courts are on will likely to be impacted by the pipeline construction work.
"The northern side of that tennis courts, we will actually be bringing that pipeline through to facilitate construction," said Smith. "That is why there hasn't been a major restoration effort (at the courts). At the time when we first started ... we thought we would be in construction now. However, that project is still a ways off."
Diane Johnson, director of the city's parks and recreation department, said the courts may need to be removed entirely.
"The courts being installed in a damp and marshy area is a big reason for the state they are currently in," she said. "That is why they have not been too eager to do anything with them.".
"At one point we had them resurfaced and the resurfacing didn't last very long; it started cracking. And they weren't usable for like two and a half years when that CSO project took place because the way they had the area blocked off when they buried the storage tank our fields were impacted."
Smith said the tennis courts weren't heavily used by the public, "but we are going to take a look at it," he said. "I believe the maintenance staff is going to try to make at least one set of courts playable for now."
Greg Larry is a reporter at the Cumberland Times-News. To reach him, call 304-639-4951, email glarry@times-news.com and follow him on Twitter.
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