New Tennis Pro Shop at Westside Park Open For Business

Mike Oransky Tennis, located at Westside Park, is a professionally staffed, full service tennis center that has offered quality programming to the public for many years. However, the operations of this facility were crammed into a tiny, increasingly dilapidated “tennis hut”. In spite of the considerable need for a better facility and restrooms, funding for a pro-shop simply never materialized. Finally, at the Climb for Cancer charity tennis exhibition in February, 2009, Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan promised all the attendees that a new tennis pro-shop would be built at Westside Park.

The passage of the Wild Spaces Public Places (WSPP) ½ cent sales tax initiative by the citizens of Alachua County has allowed the construction of much-needed renovations and upgrades to many parks in the Gainesville/Alachua County area.

The City of Gainesville placed construction of a new tennis pro-shop on the list of WSPP projects. When the actual income from the sales tax was found to be considerably less than the projected income, a re-prioritization of the projects took place. Thanks to a large turnout of tennis enthusiasts at a city commission meeting, the pro-shop/restroom facility was retained on the list. Ground-breaking took place in March, 2010, and the building, complete with restrooms, storage space, office, and pro-shop was completed in June, 2010.

Old tennis hut (to the left)

After-new tennis pro-shop at Westside