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Tennis Center, CCSU agree on lease

By J. FRANK LYNCH

jflynch@thecitizennews.com

Clayton College & State University’s Fayette County Higher Education Center is safe, at last.

This week, the Peachtree City Tourism Association announced it had finally reached a lease agreement with officials from Clayton State to continue offering courses at the Peachtree City Tennis Center.

The lease became effective Monday.

In late August, the attorney for the Peachtree City Tourism Association, which manages the Tennis Center, sent a letter to Clayton State officials insisting that the university “indemnify,” or provide liability insurance, for the facility.

CCSU had been holding classes at the Tennis Center since August 2003 without a rental agreement. Negotiations for a lease had stalled over the indemnity issue.

State law prohibits a university from providing such coverage, so the concern was finally settled by requiring all CCSU employees and students to sign waivers of liability when utilizing the satellite campus.

If a lease agreement hadn’t been reached by Nov. 1, the Tourism Association had threatened to evict Clayton State from the ground-floor space it occupies in the Tennis Center clubhouse.

“We are glad to have found this compromise so that local residents and businesses can still benefit from the CCSU program locally,” said Steve Rapson, chairman of the Tourism Association.

“Clayton provides a needed service in our community, and we certainly wanted to find a way for this arrangement to continue working.”

Mannie E. Hall Jr., director of academic outreach at Clayton State, had similar praise for the agreement.

“On behalf of (University) President Dr. Thomas Harden and our provost, Dr. Sharon Hoffman, I want to take this opportunity to express Clayton State’s gratitude and appreciation for the opportunity to finalize the lease agreement, to continuing using the wonderful Tennis Center facilities in support of our ongoing effort to directly provide higher education opportunities for the citizens of Fayette County,” said Hall.

CCSU began offering programming at the Tennis Center last fall, including core credit classes as well as continuing education courses. This semester, enrollment set a record at near 120 students for credit courses alone, which are taught on Tuesdays and Thursdays.