The plan to build a $3 million indoor tennis complex on the Withrow University High School campus seemed to have a lot going for it when supporters pitched the idea more than a year ago.
The Cincinnati Tennis Foundation would pay construction costs and would run the place, while Cincinnati Public School students, including those from Withrow, would get to learn and play the sport in a new facility.
But then things got messy – so messy the deal eventually fell through.
The trouble started when a group of neighbors on Kendall Avenue in Hyde Park sent the Cincinnati Board of Education a 170-page document and statement opposing the project, arguing it was a bad deal for the school district and that it would destroy their property values because it was about 100 feet from their backyards.
Rick Ganulin, a lawyer and former assistant city solicitor in Cincinnati, lives on Kendall and led the charge against the project. He described the proposed 35-foot-high metal structure, which would have been located in an area currently occupied by outdoor tennis courts, as a “Soviet-era monstrosity.”
On the other side was the tennis foundation, a nonprofit that runs programs for kids and adults across Greater Cincinnati. Its executive director, Matt Dektas, said earlier this year that he’s committed to helping the public schools build middle and high school tennis programs, including tennis teams.
More than 3,000 kids, including those who are visually impaired or in wheelchairs, participated in programs last year for tennis and pickleball, according to the foundation’s annual report. Many attended at a reduced rate. Last summer, 96% of kids involved in tennis or pickleball programs did so for free or at a discount.
“Whether a player has the goal of playing recreationally or playing in college, we are there to provide that opportunity to kids who might not have even known it is an option,” Dektas said.
Withrow Principal Jerron Gray liked the idea. He said the indoor facility was a chance for public school kids to experience a sport that often is the domain of wealthy kids from the suburbs. More than 90% of Withrow’s 1,300 students are non-white and 85% qualify for free or reduced-cost lunch because of their families’ income.
When the project came up for a vote before the school board in June, Gray was there to defend it.
“This is what schools should be all about. It’s about our kids,” Gray told board members. “Why would we not pursue this opportunity?”
Turns out, a slim majority of board members who voted that day came up with several reasons not to pursue it. They talked about the legal fight neighbors promised to wage if the project went forward and they questioned the value of turning over control of a large patch of the Withrow campus to a private foundation, even though the district would maintain ownership of the property.
“I have all imaginable reservations,” said Board President Eve Bolton.
Weeks before the vote, Bolton said one of her reservations was her desire for the district to be a good neighbor to those who lived near CPS schools. If so many neighbors objected, she reasoned, board members should take their concerns seriously.
In the end, concerns about the project outweighed its potential benefits in the eyes of a slim majority of CPS board members who were present the day of the vote. Two voted for it, two against it and one abstained. Without a majority, the proposal to build the indoor tennis facility failed.
Officials at the tennis foundation, who had talked for months about the importance of an indoor facility, remain interested in building one somewhere. But they said they have no plans at this time to try again at another location.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Why Withrow didn’t get indoor tennis courts after fight with neighbors
