Council reinstates tennis program after petition presentation

STELLARTON - Stellarton's tennis program is back on for the summer after nearly 400 signatures were added to a petition in just a few days.
The petition asked council to reinstate the summer position that was cut earlier this year.
Recreation department head Paul Corbin says the position will be reduced this year, however. Normally, the summer tennis instructor normally does the tennis camp on Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning, and then spends the rest of their time working with the Stellarton day camp.
This year, however, the instructor will be limited to the tennis camp program, so it will only be a nine hour per week position at a rate of $10 per hour.
That may make it harder to find an instructor, said Corbin, especially this late in the season, when most of the students are already employed.
But he's pleased that council decided this week to reinstate the program.
"I'm happy the public stepped forward and let their councillors know, and that council followed through on it," he said.
"Initially, recreation seems like an easy target for savings because the value really isn't tangible and there aren't results you see right away. But the public really wants it and cares about it.
Normally, he said, 40 kids between the ages of five and 12 enrol in the summer camp, and it's usually the only summer activity many of these kids do.