UPDATED: Question for the Greenburgh Supervisor Candidates from the Tennis Playing Lobby

Questions for each of the candidates relating to the Veterans Park Tennis Courts

1. The physical condition of many of the tennis courts at Veterans Park is dismal.  Are there plans to fix up the courts?  If so, how will this be funded?

2. Plans were floated a few years ago to lease the courts to a private operator to install inflated bubbles to make the Veterans Park courts a year round venue.  Apparently this plan stalled because of Finneran Law issues, but the law was amended in June 2012 to overcome this hurdle.  Reportedly, the Town of Eastchester has entered into business relationships with Sport Time to operate the town owned courts at Lake Isle as a year-round facility that generates revenue for Eastchester.  It seems that there should be way to replicate this model in Greenburgh at Veterans Park and thereby provide additional revenue to the Town.  Does either candidate have a plan in place to allow the courts to become a year-round facility?  In light of the Finneran law override in June 2012, was has there been no progress on this issue?
  

UPDATED WITH RESPONSES FROM EACH CANDIDATE: 

RESPONSE FROM BOB BERNSTEIN 
Response to Question No. 1 The physical condition of the tennis courts at Veteran Park is appallingly poor and has been deteriorating for years with nothing being done. I am not aware of any plans to fix up the courts and/or any plans to fund such repairs. If elected, I would conduct an immediate needs assessment for the Town's parks and recreation department so we can identify and prioritize the work required to remediate the Town's recreational infrastructure. The tennis courts are not the only problem at Veteran Park. The Town's consultants reported in 2010 the pools had outlived their useful life and were in need of immediate replacement, which could cost between $8.5 and $9 million alone. I believe the Town must invest in its recreational infrastructure by borrowing at historical low interests to make the necessary capital improvements -- provided we can assure the taxpaying public that the cost of funding them can be managed efficiently.
 Response to Question No. 2 Plans to contract with Sportime or another vendor to construct a part-year tennis bubble stalled when Sportime insisted, as a condition of its involvement, that the taxpayers of unincorporated Greenburgh agree to guarantee funding the cost of up to $3 million in improvements to the tennis courts. The problem with the deal is that if Sportime's venture fails, the taxpayers of unincorporated Greenburgh will be left holding the bag with no vendor in place to make sure the investment pays for itself. I would study the Eastchester model to see if it could work for Greenburgh.

RESPONSE FROM PAUL FEINER: A few years ago Sport Time offered the town a great lease --we were going to let them operate an indoor tennis facility at AF Veteran park. The tennis courts would have been enahanced without taxpayer dollars, we would have received 15 years of payments: $192,000 to $230,000 a year and a clubhouse.My opponent claimed that this was not allowed because of the Finneran law. His lawsuits against the town derailed the initiative. Last year we succeeded in getting the NYS Legislature and Governor to approve a law authorizing the town to rent the tennis courts to a private operator during off season. Sport Time changed their proposal- they wanted us to guarantee their bonds. We thought that was too risky. Getting the indoor tennis facility lease agreement is still on my agenda--as long as the town comes out ahead. I have had numerous conversations with potential tennis court operators since last year and have not given up.