Norton to Meet with NPS on Tennis Tournaments at Carter Barron
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) will attend the annual tennis tournament meeting with Tara Morrison, National Park Service (NPS) Superintendent of Rock Creek Park, Eleni A. Rossides, executive director of Washington Tennis and Education Foundation (WTEF), and community members, today, October 28, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Washington Ethical Society, 7750 16th Street NW, to discuss the financial audit of WTEF/Lagardere Unlimited. In October 2012, Norton convened a meeting with Carter Barron residents, NPS, Park Police, Metropolitan Police Department, WTEF and Council Member Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4) to discuss various concerns that residents had about the annual tennis tournament, including concerns about parking, flooding, funding for youth programing, and the number of tournaments based on the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). At this meeting, NPS agreed to have at least one annual meeting with the community before the tournament is held. At that meeting, NPS agreed to give the Congresswoman an accounting of funds for the last 10 years to comply with the record of decision (ROD). After reviewing what WTEF sent her, Norton realized that the information did not show the information required by the ROD, so she wrote a letter to WTEF asking that they send her the appropriate information. There was another meeting held in June 2013 to discuss tennis tournament logistics such as parking, negative impacts on the park, number of tournaments, WTEF financial information, and the status of NPS-WTEF agreements. In July of this year, Norton met with Morrison to discuss the WTEF financial audit and to review the agreements that NPS had entered into with WTEF.
"I am looking forward to the annual NPS meeting, not only to continue rebuilding our relationship with WTEF, but to keep the entire process open to the community," Norton said. "This will be an information-sharing meeting that is meant to keep all of the actors accountable."
Just before Norton was elected, some members of Congress funded the tennis facility without consulting with the District government or the Ward 4 community. When Norton came to Congress, she insisted on an EIS, and after the appropriate safeguards were put in place, the community appeared satisfied.