With the hope of improving public tennis courts in Athens — including for high school players — City Council members will vote Monday on a proposal to spend no more than $6,500 to have an engineer oversee the repair and resurfacing of courts at two local parks.

Citizen concern about the condition of recreational tennis courts in the city prompted the proposed repairs.

There are eight courts at Swan Creek Park — four for public use and four the city gave to the Athens school system to do with as they wish. There are three courts at Big Spring Memorial Park.

On Monday, council members could vote on a request that would pay Morell Engineering to develop bid specifications, engineer and oversee the tennis court projects at Big Spring and Swan Creek parks. Specifically, the resolution calls for letting Mayor Ronnie Marks and Cemetery, Parks and Recreation Director Ben Wiley accept a proposal from Morell.

The proposal is needed because the estimates to repair Big Spring and Swan Creek public courts exceeded the state’s $50,000 threshold for work that can be done without taking bids. The estimates were $35,000 at Swan Creek and $20,000 at Big Spring.

The money for repairs and resurfacing would come from the Cemetery, Parks and Recreation capital account.