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Parks board declines waiver request for high school girls’ tennis team court fees
Summary
A Beaufort-area high school travel tennis team requested fee waivers for four court reservations during the spring season; the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board declined, citing precedent and county fee policy.
Mary Anne Becker, captain of a northern Beaufort travel girls’ tennis team, asked the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board on Jan. 9 to waive court rental fees for four Sunday matches at the Beaufort Center on Boundary during the spring season.
Becker said the team would need four courts for each match and that the season would include four home matches; the county’s current rental fee cited in the meeting is $50 per court for up to three hours, which would amount to $200 per match and $800 for the season if the team reserved four times. Becker said her team has 10 players and that the cost per player at current rates could be a hardship for some.
Board members reviewed an earlier one-time fee waiver the department granted in the fall and noted the county treats travel organizations and teams consistently. Bruce Yeager and other board members said rental fees are an established county revenue source and that repeating a waiver could set an undesirable precedent for travel and club teams.
After discussion, the board declined Becker’s request for a waiver. Members said the department offers reasonable rental rates and that an earlier three-court waiver was intended as a one-time measure to build awareness of a new program. No alternative county subsidy was offered; staff encouraged Becker to pursue available scheduling options and to explore reservations well in advance.
Board members and staff said the Parks and Recreation Department has provisions that may offer discounts in specific circumstances (for example, for schools or certain nonprofit partnerships) but that those exceptions do not extend generally to travel club fee waivers.
Becker told the board her team has been to state tournaments for five years and that playing home matches at the Beaufort Center would benefit the players’ performance and program stability. The board’s decision was delivered at the meeting; there was no formal motion recorded to grant the waiver.
