Privatization of the public tennis courts at Napa Valley College
There will be a meeting on May 21st. It begins at 4:30pm in the Napa Valley College Admin Bldg. If you want time to speak about concerns with the proposed NVTA mission, then you need to be there a little ahead of 4:30 to sign a card and hand it in before they go into closed mtg at 4:30. After that, no one can speak except those who were there early and signed a card. They don't ever publish how long the closed session will be, so we just wait until they open up for the public to join the mtg.
On Thursday, April 16th, the Napa Valley Tennis Association (NVTA) presented a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to the college's Board of Trustees to take over the college's courts. The District Facilities Committee is discussing this item today.
Historically, these courts have been a vital public asset, having lights and open every day, until 10:00 PM. The NVTA is claiming to the college board that this project will be in part funded by USTA Grants.
According to the official NVTA Presentation and Draft MOU submitted to the college, the NVTA’s terms include:
- USTA Grant: Claiming the $300,000 project will be funded through "USTA grants and NVTA fundraising."
- Public Lockout: Restricting guaranteed public access to just a single tennis court, handing the rest of the scheduling over to the NVTA and F.I.T.T. (a private, for-profit coaching business).
- Utility Burden: Requiring the publicly funded college to pay for all utility costs (including court lights), allowing the NVTA to host private "night play" at the taxpayers' expense.
- 90-Day Notice: Requiring the college to provide the NVTA with a 90-day notice to use its own facilities.
A few years ago, the NVTA executed a similar takeover of the courts at Vintage High School, severely restricting public access to just a few hours on Sunday afternoons. We are hoping the same thing won't happen to our community college courts.
The courts are still very usable and do need to be (properly) resurfaced at some point, but I don't think it's worth it to lose public access. There's been a lot of time, money and energy put into the courts from the college and locals.
