Agenda - 11-20-2017 - 8-d - Termination of Lease and Joint Use Agreement with Orange County Schools

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Orange County Department of Environment, Agriculture, Parks & Recreation PO Box 8181 Hillsborough, NC 27278 Phone: (919) 245-2510 Fax: (919) 644-3351 In the spring of this year, two new things occurred relative to this situation: • Most of the tennis teams did not pay the $150/team fee that they were billed. Because of this and other concerns some of the teams had about lack of restrooms and court maintenance at OHS, Durham staff (responsible for scheduling league games) refused to schedule games this fall for these USTA teams at OHS courts. The teams which did pay their spring 2012 fee have been allowed to play at these courts. • The County adopted a Facility Use Policy in 2012 which included a fee schedule attachment, also adopted as part of the County budget. With the opening of tennis courts at Fairview Park, a rate for use of tennis courts and tennis courts with lights was added to the fee schedule ($5/hour for each court, and an additional $5/hour for lights). This rate was established by examining fees charged by other public entities and the County’s costs of the lighting bills and court maintenance, and is roughly equivalent to the same per-team rate that was previously applied for the Durham/USTA teams. These fees went into effect July 1 with the new fiscal year 1. Now, with the onset of fall league play, the $5/hour rate has replaced the old $150/team fee, and is applicable at both Fairview and OHS courts. Staff has worked over the last several months with Orange County Schools and the tennis club (OTC) to try and create a better process for reserving the courts involving OTC - perhaps developing a new reservation process and agreement between OTC and the schools - eliminating the County as the “middle man.” However, a draft proposal from OTC to this effect has not yet been received. Restroom Availability As noted above, in 2009 the arrangements for use of the OHS courts between OCS, the tennis teams and the County noted that there were no restroom facilities available. However, this has recently re-emerged as a concern from some league players. Staff has offered the use of Fairview courts, to be reserved consistent with the fee schedule. This is a facility which does have restroom facilities. To date, no individual team has opted to reserve these facilities. Staff has since met with the OHS athletic director about a way to make the school restrooms available via a lockbox that could have keys issued to groups reserving the OHS courts. If this is ultimately successful, this would resolve the lack of restrooms issue at OHS. Maintenance Concerns have been raised in recent months about the cleanliness of the courts and some burned out lights. As noted above, the maintenance of the 1 For the three teams that have registered and paid their bills, the new cost based on the per-hour rate has ranged from $138 to $165 for the fall season. 10