Newspaper Page Text
A R0vJNt> Touik)
BiRDz z
XTS THE TiME OF VEAR
CJH6M TME 8<^DS6Q CRAZV
THE cardinals ape perched
CM E VEftV OTHER FENCE
/*/.
/'/i
\y i
A''
''Vi
mm
• / i,''-*: v**'*
. iV
• • • •
Akjo the 84rreoOWLS Abe
HOOTims THE Nl&HT AWAV
THE ROS/NS ARE HJNT/N6
Fo/rjuicv little Bugs
MokcU ucjvj.vmo »j y ^ \ tJ 6 t ps . w g; t
The Ins and Outs
of the Bishop Park
Tennis Center Saga
Long planned except for specifics—
including where to build it—a tennis center
proposal approved by ACC voters in 2004 has
hedged in county commissioners and aroused
opponents who want to protect existing
uses at Bishop Park (which appears to be,
by default, the likeliest site). Another high-
priority site—the Whit Davis Road side of
Southeast Clarke Park—was nixed by ACC com
missioners after nearby residents complained
it would bring too much traffic.
As the cheapest site to build on a budget
that's "a million-and-a-half short" accord
ing to commissioner Harry Sims (who chaired
the site selection committee of "basically
citizens that had an interest in tennis") and
based on a points system, Bishop Park was
the committee's "reluctant" top recommenda
tion. Commissioners plan to finalize a site at
their July 6 voting meeting
(it will also be discussed
at their June 17 agenda
setting session), although
opponents are asking for a
delay.
A county-hired firm has
drawn up "conceptual" plans for Bishop Park
and the three runner-up sites: Satterfield Park,
Southeast Clarke Park (on its Lexington Road
side) and the YWCO-owned land adjacent to
its Research Road facility. At Bishop, 10 new
courts would be added to the park's 11 exist
ing ones, replacing the ballfield and basketball
court (where the popular Saturday-morning
Athens Farmers Market is presently held) and
part of the undeveloped field along Sunset
Drive that's often used for pickup soccer
games.
Opponents—both nearby park users and
supporters of the farmers market—have
started a Facebook group ("Protect Bishop
Park"), a website and a petition campaign.
Having already heard objections from soccer
players, commissioners have asked for a new
plan that would at least leave the soccer field
unchanged. Sims doesn't see how that could
be done: "The site's too small," he says. "It's
something that has to be sacrificed." But
some commissioners have suggested they'd be
willing to reduce the number of tennis courts.
Organizers of the Athens Farmers Market
do not concede that they are outgrowing
Bishop Park—as Mayor Heidi Davison sug
gested at last month's mayor and commission
work session—or that the market would need
to move anyway. "The plans we have seen for^
the tennis center would basically require us to
move," says Athens Farmers Market president
Jay Payne. "We draw somewhere [from] 1500
to 2000 people every Saturday morning... If
it's not Bishop Park, hopefully we can find
some place that's just as amenable and practi
cal and has all the benefits. But we haven't
located that spot yet."
No unpaved area (or tennis courts, with
their special surfaces) could stand such heavy
foot traffic, Payne notes. He would like to see
a covered pavilion developed—perhaps as a
future SPLOST project—similar to the large,
open tennis shed now at Bishop Park, that
might be used for "concerts, outdoor theater,
plus the farmers' market."
ACC commissioners may feel cornered
by the tennis center plan. Because voters
approved it (along with
other sales-tax-funded
projects, most of them
already built), they now
must build it. According to
Georgia case law quoted by
ACC's SPLOST office, "the
governing authority can make adjustments
to the project to enhance its feasibility, but
the project cannot be abandoned" once vot
ers approve—unless changing circumstances
have actually made it infeasible to complete.
As initially proposed by three local tennis
associations, the tennis center was intended
"to meet the recreational tennis needs of the
citizens of Clarke County"—especially older
residents, who may not play other sports—and
remedy the "lack of courts for league play" at
Bishop Park and the "lack of restrooms and
centralized, lighted courts" that it said were
driving tennis leagues to facilities outside the
county.
It "would attract revenue-producing junior
and adult USTA tournaments" which would
help defray operational costs, the initial pro
posal said, but such tournaments are "not
the reason" to build it. No study or specific
estimates have been made of the tennis cen
ter's potential to attract tournaments, and the
brief project description publicized before the
SPLOST vote includes no reference to tourna
ment play. But drawing tournaments to Athens
has since been emphasized; "it was really sold
to the community as an economic develop
ment tool," ACC Commissioner Kathy Hoard
said at a May work session.
The initial proposal was to build the tennis
center not within Bishop Park, but adjacent to
it, on land then owned by the VFW. For land
acquisition, $700,000 was proposed; but it
was cut from the budget before the project
was approved, and a long-term care hospital
has since been built on the VFW land. Carol
Myers served on the 2005 SPLOST citizens'
committee that reviewed the tennis center
and other proposals. She endorsed it, she
says, based on the proposal's "depth of prepa
ration." A big decision for that committee, she
recalls, was whether to include a new jail. The
committee decided not to. "When we didn't
put the jail on, we had a lot of money" left
for other projects. But then the elected com
missioners added the downtown parking deck
to the list, and the tennis center's budget was
reduced from $3.3 million to $2.4 million.
That has left the project underfunded.
Bishop Park got high ratings partly because
10 additional courts could be built there at
the lowest cost, says site selection committee
chairman Sims. "One of the big shocks" to the
committee, he says, was how much it would
cost to grade and prepare the sites. East
Athens Community Park, for example, "has a
lot of vacant land. But that would require a
tremendous amount of grading."
Sims' committee reviewed over a hundred
different sites, including some privately owned
ones in case no county-owned sites proved
suitable. The YWCO-owned site was included
in the top four recommendations—and is "an
awfully good site for a lot of reasons," ACC
Leisure Services Director Pam Reidy told com
missioners at the May work session—but no
money is budgeted to buy that land, and no
purchase price has been discussed.
Four public hearings were held by the site
selection committee; those hearings were
attended by "tennis enthusiasts if nobody
else," Sims says.
John Huie
Commissioners plan
to finalize a site at their
July 6 voting meeting.
6 FUGPOLE.COM JUNE 9,2010
SHH