Lease pending for Clayton State, Tennis Center

By J. FRANK LYNCH
jflynch@theCitizenNews.com

Clayton State University is safe for now in the cozy space it occupies at the Peachtree City Tennis Center.

City Manager Bernard McMullen said a lease agreement with the university was one of the “to do” items remaining in this week’s transfer of tennis center operations from the Development Authority to the city.

The college has been using the city-owned space rent free and without any lease agreement for a year, a fact discovered just two weeks ago. Virgil Christian, former executive director of the Development Authority, said in August the college was leasing the space under a $1 a year agreement worked out between the DAPC, the county Chamber of Commerce and county development officials. But Christian, who stepped down from his post on Oct. 31, apparently never got around to offering finalizing the lease agreement, a fact discovered when officers of the Tourism Association requested copies of the contract for transfer.

APC Attorney Mark Oldenburg said a lease was in the discussion stages, but was forgotten amid all the controversy in recent months.

“We had some drafts that we floated back and forth,” Oldenburg said. “They didn’t like it and sent me one, I didn’t like it and sent it back.

“My recollection is that Clayton State said, ‘Wait a minute, we’re going to see how this plays out’,” Oldenburg said.

University spokesman John Shiffert said the lack of a lease was a non-issue with university administrators.

“The lease situation, or lack of such, has been the same since October 2002 (when Clayton State first began utilizing the space), and we’re comfortable with that,” he said. Shiffert said the university is not required to go into a lease agreement when it offers off-campus instruction at another location, such as at local high schools, and so didn’t question the Tennis Center arrangement.

Mayor Steve Brown, lead critic of the DAPC’s management practices, said the situation left the city vulnerable to a lawsuit in the event of accident or injury.

“It would have been one thing if this had been for just two or three months, but they’ve been doing this for a whole year,” Brown said.

The university’s vision for Fayette County remains clear, Shiffert said.

“Clayton State’s involvement in Fayette County is for us, first and foremost, a mission issue,” Shiffert said. “We’re interested in educating people and, when we were asked to come into Fayette County, we were happy to oblige. Indeed, we have always had a very friendly arrangement with everyone in Fayette County.”

With the fall semester, Clayton State began offering first-year credit classes in four different subject areas at the Fayette County Higher Education Center, renovated space on the ground floor of the Tennis Center’s clubhouse. A series of non-credit classes are taught at the site as well.

Shiffert said school administrators are concerned that the university continue to maintain a strong presence in Fayette, which it considers a hot growth area well into the future.

In his State of the University address given in September, CCSU President Thomas K. Harden said the Fayette County site “needs to expand dramatically”

Meanwhile, the university’s spring semester classes begin in January. Shiffert said the uncertainty about who will manage the tennis center has no impact on the course schedule, at least as far as the university is concerned.

“Should some issue regarding our use of the space in the Peachtree City Tennis Center arise between then and now, we would simply find other space in Fayette County to hold our academic and noncredit classes,” said Shiffert.