Things will be brighter and more efficient for two City of Rockmart athletic facilities in a few weeks.

Crews were scheduled to begin work this week on replacing the lighting at both the tennis courts on Piedmont Avenue and the girls’ softball fields at the Nathan Dean Sports Complex.

The biggest change will take place at the tennis courts, where a less effective lighting system is being brought up to date.

“Before, the lights there would just come on automatically at dusk or whenever it got real dark during inclement weather,” city recreation coordinator Jeff Hulsey said.

“Now, with the new lights, there will be a push buttons at the controls of the lights to turn them on when people want to use the facility at night. Then they will go off after a certain amount of time.”

Hulsey said the new system would save money and energy in the long run and help enhance the facility.

New cement light poles and power supply will be a part of the two-phase project, which is expected to be completed in two weeks. During that time, the courts will not be lighted.

The entire project will cost around $200,000 and be paid for by funds allotted to the city’s recreation programs by Polk County.

Hulsey said that they are hopefully looking at starting a recreation tennis league in the future and it will benefit from the new lights.

“We keep up with the usage of the courts and we’ve noticed a tremendous increase in usage over the last two years,” Hulsey said. “It’s one of the reasons we wanted to install new lights.”

The recreation department, in cooperation with Rockmart Little League, is also preparing to host the Georgia Recreation and Park Association 7-8-year-old District 5 baseball tournament.

Running from June 21-25 at Dean Field, the tournament will feature seven teams from Northwest Georgia, including two Rockmart teams and two Cedartown teams.

Games will start at 6 p.m. on Monday and continue through the week with the championship game scheduled for Friday evening. The winner will represent the district in the state tournament.