Local indoor tennis court to become multi-sport community facility

TOWANDA - In recent months, Joe Haggerty of Wysox Township has erected an indoor tennis court on his property, which he plans to make available for use by the community.

"My goal is to make it a long-term, real asset to the whole community," Haggerty said. "It started out as something that would be for my kids ... Now I hope to have youth (in the area) take advantage of it. That would be great."

Haggerty said the facility will be primarily an indoor tennis court. But because the net posts and netting can be easily removed, the facility could be used by community organizations for indoor soccer games and other sports, he said.

"I think it will be great for the community," said Charlie Crawford, the coach of the Towanda High School girls' tennis team. "It will get a lot of use."

Crawford said the facility is big enough to accommodate other sports besides tennis.

Adult members of the public will also be able to play tennis in the building, Haggerty said.

The facility is 85 feet wide, 135 feet long, and 35 feet tall, Haggerty said.

The building has a metal frame with a very heavy, fire-proof vinyl fabric over the frame, he said. The fabric is in two layers, with three feet of air space between the two layers.

While the building itself has been erected, the surface of the tennis court is not yet finished, and a coal-fired hot air heater still needs to be installed in the facility, Haggerty said.

The building, which is constructed on a hillside overlooking the Susquehanna River, is visible from much of Towanda Borough. The building, which Haggerty refers to as the Haggerty Tennis Center, is located at the end of Pennsylvania Avenue in Wysox Township.

Haggerty said the building was manufactured by Iowa-based ClearSpace Fabric Structures International Inc., which constructs such buildings primarily for agricultural uses.

Haggerty said he had initially intended to construct the building for use by his daughters, Meredith and Melinda, who, according to Crawford, are the top-ranked members of the Towanda High School girls' tennis team. Meredith, a senior, and Melinda, a junior, were the first girls at Towanda High to qualify to compete at the state high school tennis tournament.

"I was talking to the Syracuse University tennis coach, Luke Jenson, and his comment to me was that ... if the girls want to play on a Division I tennis team, they have to hit the ball every day.

"That's impossible in Towanda, because there is no place to do that. There is no indoor court," Haggerty said.

The closest public, indoor courts are in the Elmira-Corning area and in Binghamton, N.Y., Haggerty said.

"We couldn't afford to do that (travel to an indoor court every day)" due to the high gas costs, and the long travel time was an issue, too, he said.

After ruling out a daily commute to an indoor court in the region, Haggerty said he started to investigate the cost of constructing an indoor court on his property.

"I started to research buildings, but I couldn't afford any of them," he said. "They were all well over $100,000."

"So I let all the manufacturers of (the buildings) know that if they became aware of a used building, I would be interested," Haggerty said.

Then, in April 2009, Haggerty got a call from an employee at ClearSpace, who said that Gamesa Corp., which manufactures wind turbines, had a structured, metal-frame building with a fabric cover at its facility near Philadelphia, which Gamesa wanted to get rid of.

"There had been a big wind storm, which put a rip in it, which is why they wanted to get rid of it," Haggerty said. "I made an offer for the building, which they accepted."

Haggerty said that two tractor trailers were used to move the building to Wysox Township last May.

"From May until now, I have been working on the building any chance I can," Haggerty said. "I have a full-time job, so it has been a struggle to get it all done. Most of the labor was (done by) me, with some help."

Among those who helped erect the building were members of the Towanda High football team, business friends, and family members, he said.

Haggerty said the rip in the fabric has been repaired.

When the building was used by Gamesa Corp., it had a single layer of fabric, Haggerty said. Haggerty said he negotiated with ClearSpace to purchase the second fabric layer - a new, outer tarp - for the building.

Haggerty said that employees from ClearSpace have assured him that the building is sturdy enough to withstand 90 mph winds.

Haggerty said he is doing fund-raising in the community to help get the building finished.

"It's a major undertaking for one person to do what I am doing," Haggerty said. "Everything (that has been spent on the building) has been my money so far. For me to finish it, I'll have to see if others in the community can help (to pay for it)," Haggerty said.

Haggerty said he has also set a "recommended donation" of $25 per hour for use by the public to play tennis on the court.

"If people don't want to pay me (the $25), they don't have to," Haggerty said. "I'm not a business. If someone wants to help me (by making a donation to use the tennis court), they can. If they choose not to, then that's OK."

The donations will help to pay for the cost of the building, as well as the costs of operating it, which include heating and lighting costs, he said.

There will also be recommended donations set for community groups to play soccer and other sports on the court, he said.

The Haggerty Tennis Center "will be a clay court-type facility," said Crawford, who helped Haggerty transport the building to Wysox Township.

"For people who have not played on that surface, it is very forgiving on equipment and the body," Crawford said.

"It will be a good surface."

Arlene Mendler, a tennis player from Towanda, said: "I think it (the Haggerty Tennis Center) will be absolutely wonderful for the area. "We've never had an indoor court, a clay court. It's going to be terrific."

Haggerty said that, for fund-raising purposes, he has started a bank account in the name of the Haggerty Tennis Center, at a local bank.

"If anyone wants to donate, they can make a check out to the Haggerty Tennis Center and mail it to Michele and Joe Haggerty, RR6 Box 6074-A, Towanda, PA 18848," Haggerty said.

James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633; or e-mail: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com.