City Pols Show Off New Tennis Courts Built with FEMA Cash
We reported on the new tennis courts at Rye Recreation earlier in September, but on Wednesday, City of Rye officials brought a giant pair of scissors (and no tennis rackets) to officially open the four new tennis courts at the Rec. The old courts were damaged in the Ida storm before undergoing renovations with $700,000 in FEMA funds and some elbow grease from our local DPW staff.
“We are here to celebrate the opening of these beautiful tennis courts and our new, equally beautiful parking lot number one,” said Mayor Josh Cohn, also making reference to the parking lot renovation in downtown Rye. “Now each of these projects was really forced on us, [the] tennis court rehabilitation by Ida and the parking lot renewal by our efforts to settle to Save the Sound lawsuit – that is a so called environmental benefit project. So you could look at each of these things… forced on us as lemons. We had to do them, but city staff changed them into lemonade.”
The renovation includes the construction of four new hard courts, installation of LED lighting, bleacher seating, new fencing around courts 5 and 6, and new stone dust walkways. Over 100 trees and shrubs have been planted, with a pollinator garden still to be added. Courts 1 and 2 have been converted into dedicated pickleball courts. As part of the project, enhanced drainage and soil stabilization measures were implemented. All work, except for court paving and painting, was completed by the City’s DPW staff.
Watch the ribbon cutting:
I grew up in Rye NY but moved to Connecticut in my early 20’s. However, I still get my haircut by Johnny, at the Rye Barber shop (and previously by his predecessor Pat Macri), as well participate in events at American Yacht Club. I was recently sent a news article (source unknown), titled “Rye Named Second Wealthiest Suburb in U. S.”, as written by “Cristian Falcone”; where it reviewed typical statistics of a $2.1 Million average home price and the $400,000 typical household income. And yes, I know about the extremely high Rye property taxes. I am writing to express my astonishment that the City of Rye would use FEMA money to build a new parking lot and tennis courts, Yes, the area is in a perennial flood zone and the City of Rye was entitled to apply for hurricane damage FEMA money, for the tennis court & parking lot repairs. But, did they really have to do so?
There are many US Families whose homes have been destroyed by floods, fires, tornados and hurricanes, who would have benefitted much more from the $700,000 FEMA money, then the Rye residents benefitted, from rebuilt tennis courts and parking lot. Maybe Rye could have established a City Bond Fund and sold interest bearing bonds, to build these projects? Maybe Rye could have even solicited resident donations or sold “Naming Rights” to a Resident who wanted to commemorate their family name.
All I’m saying is that a fine, upscale, upstanding like the City of Rye NY, with great schools and Community Service did not have to apply for FEMA money to rebuild tennis courts and a parking lot. Rye should have left the $700,000 money in the FEMA Fund (that today reported itself as going broke and currently unable to support future needy disaster victims), instead enabling it to be used for desperate people who are in dire need for housing, food, water and other basic necessities. The City of Rye should be better than that and not “game the system’ simply because they can do so.