New Tennis Center Opening in Biloxi Biloxi's investment in its $10 million sports complex off Cedar Lake Road will grow by $1.7 million this weekend, with the opening of a new tennis center at the 66-acre complex off Cedar Lake Road. The city will dedicate the new tennis center Saturday with a 9 a.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony and free daylong tennis carnival sponsored by the Harrison/Hancock Community Tennis Association. The new center, which was built on the sports complex site off Cedar Lake Road, features a 5,000-square foot clubhouse and eight tennis courts. Bowman's Tennis, a local firm, will have seven tennis professionals available for free tennis on a regular basis. The eight lighted courts employ "post tensioned concrete," which uses concrete-encased cables to reduce the potential for cracking of the concrete. The courts were used this year by Biloxi Public Schools students for practice and games. The school system, which owns the 66 acres where the city built the sports complex, helped fund part of the construction of the tennis courts. The Harrison/Hancock Community Tennis Association will sponsor the grand opening and a free tennis carnival, which will feature three workshops and tips from local tennis professionals. The tennis association is providing up to $6,000 for league equipment and will be introducing several divisions of league play. Those leagues are Quickstart Tennis, with three divisions for ages 5 to 9; Junior Team Tennis, for ages 10 to 18; and an adult league geared for beginning players. The association will continue its tennis carnival on Sunday at 3 p.m. at Bowman's Gulf Coast Tennis Club on Courthouse Road in Gulfport. For details on the tennis association, call Teresa Mathews at (228) 217-0502 or Bowman's Tennis at (228) 218-9920.
Paving of the parking areas at the Biloxi Sports Complex will begin in several weeks, now that the heavy equipment used to construct the tennis center is no longer at the site. The Biloxi City Council on Tuesday approved an $800,000 contract for Warren Paving to complete the project, which is expected to take 90 days once work begins.
|