NORWAY – The town recreation area on Cottage Street will be improved next spring with $11,500 selectmen approved for repaving the bumpy parking lot and basketball court.

Selectmen on Thursday night approved Parks and Recreation Department Director Debra Partridge’s request to take $11,500 from two department budget line items for the job. According to information provided by Partridge, $2,499 would be taken from the Tennis Reserve account and $9,083 from Recreational Facilities account. The amount is left over from the tennis court reconstruction project several years ago.

“It’s time. It’s pretty rough over there,” Partridge said.

The original low-lying site was developed using fill that included stumps, logs, rocks and other materials.

“You name it, it went into it,” Partridge said.

Funds were used to reconstruct the 30-year-old tennis courts several years ago, but not the parking area for the tennis courts, including the basketball court and the path to the tennis court.

Currently a five-inch tree stump is coming up through the ground about 10 feet back from the basketball hoop, and logs and rocks are pushing through pavement across the court where many children play pickup hoop.

With the adjoining ball field and an ice rink, the site is a popular place for townspeople and even school field trips, Partridge said.

She said if there is any money left after the contract is awarded, she would like it to reset the light poles for the ice rink and repaint the ice hut.