Spring sports are in full swing and Palmerton Area High School is holding out hope that its tennis team can get in a home match before the season ends.

Joe Faenza, Palmerton’s facilities director, said Tuesday that lines will be painted on the courts when certain weather criteria is met.

“We need three days with no rain in the forecast and temperatures above 45 degrees,” Faenza said.

The district’s school board originally approved the $174,668.36 project in June 2022. It called for milling of existing cracks at the courts and installation of a new wearing base.

In August, the board agreed to $2,502.47 for additional Superpave wearing course tonnage to level out several spots. Then Palmerton was informed it would need more than double the original amount of acrylic resurfacer, costing another $24,000, to finish the work. At the time, Faenza said the district’s engineer felt the asphalt was too porous.

After the district sent core samples of the asphalt, which came from New Enterprise Stone and Lime Company, to Certified Laboratories for testing, it was determined Palmerton would not have to pay for the extra resurfacer.

By the time all of that was sorted out, however, it was fall and leaves were coming down at a steady pace, meaning painting would have to be put off until the spring, Faenza said.

The tennis team has been playing all of its matches on the road, but athletic director Kyle Porembo said the school has reached out to its opponents on the latter half of the schedule letting them know their courts may soon be ready.

“We kind of have them on standby,” Porembo said, “but we have a great relationship with the schools in our league and we feel confident that should our courts become available, we’ll be able to work something out so that our kids can have that home match experience.”