IT’S BEEN THREE or four years since major renovations were completed at the popular tennis destination, but officials with the Parham Bridges Tennis Center in North Jackson say more improvements are needed to ensure that the center remains a draw for tennis players and enthusiasts in the future.

“We’d like to have some new bleachers,” said General Manager Terry Overcash. “We have a number of tournaments and there’s no place to sit.”

In addition to not being able to accommodate visitors, the courtside seating is in poor condition and getting worse, he said. Because of years of exposure to the elements, the bleachers beside the eastern courts are succumbing to rust, rot, and other problems.

But there may be some good news on the horizon, thanks to the Hinds County Board of Supervisors. The board recently approved a measure to create a parks and recreation board. One of the responsibilities of the volunteer board will be to find out the needs of local parks and come up with creative ways to fill them.

District One Supervisor Robert Graham said that, in addition to the new board, the county pulled about $200,000 in funding that was being given to the Pearl River Basin for recreation projects. “We decided that the best use of the funding was to enhance the parks ourselves,” he said.

ON THE NORTHSIDE, Graham hopes to work with the city to improve parks like Parham Bridges. “I’d like to remove the fallacy that just because the park’s in the city that the county can’t do anything,” he said. “Of course, before anything is done in the city limits, we’ll have to create an interlocal agreement.”

Graham said the board knows about the problems facing the tennis center and is willing to help. “An individual who is responsible in assisting us in getting funding was already familiar with the need because he plays tennis there,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons we established the board, so we can better determine the needs of our green spaces.”

Graham said a date hasn’t been set to address the issues at the center, but he would like the county to do something in the coming fiscal year. He said the board of supervisors has already approved a plan to upgrade lighting at Hico Park in Northwest Jackson.

Several years ago, the tennis center completed a capital campaign, raising $165,000 for renovations. With the money, the center was able to refurbish its building and resurface its courts - something that needs to be done every five years, he said.

In the past 12 years, the center has had all of its courts refurbished and has had a few new ones added. Four years ago, the city and center funded the building of two new courts each. And two asphalt courts were replaced with more durable post-tension concrete courts, Overcash said.

The parks and recreation board will be made up of two members from each of the county’s five districts. “Supervisors are supposed to have their nominations in by the second week in January,” Graham said. “We’d like to call on neighborhood associations to adopt our parks.”

IN ADDITION to seating, there are other issues that also need to be addressed at Parham Bridges and the adjoining tennis center. Overcash said the center has had problems with the drainage ditch that runs behind the courts on the eastern side of the Old Canton property.

“That ditch hasn’t been taken care of,” he said. The drainage ditch that runs sort of zig-zag behind the center and walking trail is filled with debris like large broken limbs. And erosion is apparently eating away at its banks. And although it’s a minor problem, two concrete picnic tables also need to be repaired.

One of the park tables has a missing bench top, and one table has been dismembered completely, with its table top and two bench tops laying on the ground nearby.

Addressing those issues, said Overcash, would make the center an even greater attraction for the country’s next Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras or Venus Williams.

But it’s not like the center doesn’t see its share of events even with the park’s few problems. It serves as host to a number of prestigious tournaments and draws as many as 60,000 people a year to the area, Overcash said.

In 2008, the center hosted the Pepsi Spring Junior Open, the Southern Farm Life NTRP Spring Classic, the Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) State Tennis Championship, and the Mississippi Private School Association (MSPSA) State Tennis Championship.

“We never sit still,” he said. “We have the busiest tennis center in the state.”