By Rusty Bradshaw
Twitter: @SunCitiesEditor

Sun City tennis players want to be able to use the ball serving machines on Recreation Centers of Sun City courts.

The machines, and similar ones for pickleball and table tennis, were deemed off limits by RCSC staff due to COVID-19 when courts were reopened earlier this year. The machines are designed to automatically serves balls to an individual player. When all the balls are served, they are retrieved and reloaded into the machine.

During its Oct. 29 meeting, resident Lori Ellingson asked the board why the machines were restricted.

“It is because of the sanitation and consistency,” Chris Herring, RCSC operations director explained. “The balls and machine would have to sanitized following each use.”

However, Ms. Ellingson said there is an option that will allow use of the machines without the balls being touched by users. She demonstrated for the board by dumping tennis balls on the floor and picking them up with a basket that had a long vertical handle attached to a “box” made of thick wire spaced just apart enough to allow the balls to squeeze through when pressure was applied downward on the handle and keep the balls within the enclosure.

“Once you have them, you just go dump them back into the machine and they are not touched,” Ms. Ellingson said.

Mr. Herring said he would review the option and report back to the board.

Two other residents addressed an option to allow clubs more opportunities to meet.

Les Litzenberger noted the auditorium at Sundial Center, 14801 N. 103rd Ave., was set up in such a way as to allow for social distancing for the board meetings. Chairs are set up so none are closer to each other than six feet.

“Maybe you should give some thought to making Sundial available to clubs for their meetings,” he said.

Constance Sherman offered another option.

“If it is not feasible because of cleaning (the Sundial auditorium), maybe you could consider letting clubs meet at the Sun Bowl,” she said.