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Highlands Today

Schools Seek $157,000 Grant For Tennis Courts

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By Jim  Konkoly | Highlands Today

Published: March 22, 2008

SEBRING — The Highlands County School Board is asking the Highlands County commissioners for $157,500 to help build 12 tennis courts.

Eight of the courts would be at Sebring High School and four would be at Avon Park High School.

Total cost for the project would be $315,000.

The school board took its 50-percent funding request for the project to the county's Recreation and Parks Advisory Committee. Appointed by the county commissioners, the committee makes recommendations to the commissioners on spending the $675,000 raised for recreation annually by a portion of the county's one penny sales tax.

RPAC members heard the school's funding request, presented by Superintendent Wally Cox, at their monthly meeting Thursday at the Highlands County Sports Complex.

The complex, opened last September, includes five tournament-quality softball fields in a star shaped pattern around an octagonal building that houses concessions stands, restrooms, supply rooms and the offices of the sports complex manager, Rocky Ellingsworth.

Following their normal procedure, RPAC members heard Cox's plea for the $157,000 funding for the 12 tennis courts but made no recommendation yet. The advisory committee will study the proposal and vote on whether to recommend funding at their April monthly meeting.

County commissioners are not bound to accept RPAC's recommendation, but generally do allocate recreation funding as recommended by the committee.

If the county commissioners do, as RPAC is recommending, allocate $37,750 to the WilsonMiller consulting firm to conduct a survey of county residents on recreation needs, the county will not have enough money left to fully fund the schools' tennis court project this fiscal year.

A total of $674,160 was available this year for recreation projects. But, most of that money – $445,988 – will go to the sports complex this year.

Of the funds committed to the sports complex this year, $320,988 goes for debt service on the county's loan for the multi-million-dollar facility, and $125,000 pays for a new building with food concessions, restrooms and storage areas which will be used primarily for Pop Warner League youth football games.

Other commitments already made by the county commissioners for this year's recreation funding total $161,650. That leaves a total of $126,661 left for other projects this year.

If the commissioners, as RPAC has recommended, spend $37,750 for a recreation survey done by a consulting firm, funds left for recreation projects will total $88,911. That would be just over half of what the school board is seeking for the tennis courts.

According to the school board's funding application, the tennis courts would be used by high school students and be open to the public when they are not used by students.

The county and the school board could apply for a state grant to help fund the tennis courts project. However, the state Legislature is expecting budget cuts of several billion dollars this year and it's not clear how that will affect the availability of state recreation grants.

The county school district last received recreation money from the county commissioners in February 2006, when the county awarded $45,000 for construction of a playground at Lake Placid Elementary School.

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