Handball courts getting needed face-lift at Plainview-Old Bethpage park

Handball courts at Plainview-Old Bethpage Community Park are being renovated after months of complaints by players.

Ed Brown arrived Saturday morning at the courts to play but instead found a sign stating, "Handball courts closed for repair," with scaffolding and a ladder standing on the courts.

Brown said he and others had complained repeatedly over at least a year and half to the Town of Oyster Bay about the gray paint peeling off the double-sided concrete wall of the four courts.

"They keep on saying 'next week, next month,' " Brown said Friday.

He said he's been playing there since 1966, and the court area has "never looked as bad as it is now." The chipped paint affected the games, because balls would go askew once they hit the area where the paint was coming off.

Oyster Bay director of operations Andrew Rothstein, said the parks department had ordered a special all-weather paint for the courts months ago but it had been on back order and only recent arrived.

Park employees are power-washing the walls and will then apply primer and paint the walls, said parks Commissioner Frank Nocerino. The renovation should be complete by later this week, he said.