City officials and the contractor operating Cherry Lane Golf Course are wrangling over who should pay for up to about $2 million in improvements at the public facility.
Included among needed upgrades is a new $1.5 million irrigation system. At issue is whether the city or the contractor should foot the bill for the new system and whether the city should have input into how the course is maintained.
In 2003, a committee that studied problems at the golf course issued a report listing needed course improvements. The city has never adopted that report, which recommended the city should pay for up to about $1.8 million in improvements, with the contractor funding the rest.
"The biggest question the community had are what are the standards for the upkeep of the golf course," Meridian City Councilman Shaun Wardle said . "As it stands right now, the course is, in many of the neighbors' and players' minds, not kept to the standards a course normally would be."
Meridian resident and businessman Clint Shiflet said he plays regularly at Cherry Lane Golf Course because it's convenient for him. While he praises the clubhouse cheeseburgers and the staff, he said the course needs improvements.
"Some of the fairways and some of the greens need work," Shiflet said. "It's about average for difficulty."
A U.S. Golf Association report issued in 2002 said the course greens are inadequate and some structures, such as several bunkers, need to be rebuilt.
Since 1978, Cherry Lane Recreation Inc. has leased the city-owned course at 4200 W. Talamore Blvd. It pays the city $6,000 a year to lease the course; its current 30-year contract expires in 2033 .
As a private operator, Cherry Lane Recreation doesn't have to open its books to city staff, even though the city owns the course. General manager Jennifer Lovan-Holloway declined to discuss the course's finances, other than to say the contractor is not losing money.
Lovan-Holloway said the root problem is the course was never built properly and the irrigation system always has been inadequate.
"You cannot do any other improvements to it until you have an irrigation system," Lovan-Holloway said. "The city doesn't want to take responsibility, and we are not going to."
When the lease expires, the course reverts to the city, including the clubhouse and outbuildings Cherry Lane Recreation paid for.
"They want all the benefits without having to pay for anything," Lovan-Holloway said. "They haven't put any money into it, but yet they want to make all of the demands. They haven't spent a dime out here."
City Councilman Bill Nary said the city simply doesn't have $1.5 million to pay for an irrigation system at the golf course. He also questions why residents should foot the bill for improvements instead of the people who use the course.
Nary said the city is looking into several other funding options, including seeking grant money and even using a revenue bond that would be paid for by increasing course fees.
Lovan-Holloway said the latter option would not work because golfers won't pay more money to use a course that needs improvements.
"By doing that, you are just going to drive more people away," she said.
Meridian's situation isn't unique. In recent years, the city of Lewiston in north-central Idaho had similar maintenance issues with a long-time contractor at its municipal golf course, said Lynn Moss, director of the Lewiston Parks and Recreation Department.
A new contractor has since taken over course operations. Moss said that contractor pays the city $138,000 annually to lease the land, plus another $15,000 for capital improvements. The city matches the capital improvements money.
A golf course's irrigation system and initial design are crucial factors in how a course will be maintained, Moss said. But cities don't invest money in municipal courses the way private courses or resorts do, he said.
Lovan-Holloway said if Cherry Lane Recreation and Meridian city officials can't come to an agreement, the contractor would consider suing the city to make it pay for a new irrigation system.
If the city won't pay for the system, Lovan-Holloway said she would like city officials to accept the status quo at the course.
"If we can't come up with something, they just leave it alone and we just run it," she said. "When they get it back, they can just do what they want with it."
But Nary said the city "can't in good conscience" let course managers do whatever they want with city-owned land.
"I think there have been some contentions over the years," Nary said. "It's unproductive anymore to argue over whose fault it is. I just want to figure out how we go forward."
Wardle said it's likely the council and mayor will come to a consensus on how to proceed by year's end.
Source: The Idaho Statesman