Source: Buffalo News (New York)
Niagara County Manager Gregory D. Lewis' recommendation that the county dispose of its 18-hole golf course faces both legal and political hurdles.
Lewis argues that the Davison Road golf course doesn't fit with any of what he lists as the county's core priorities: public safety, services to the most vulnerable, improved public works, economic development and administrative reform.
Others question the county manager's recommendation to shed what they see as a valuable county resource.
"Why would the county want to sell it when it's one of the few things the county makes money on?" asked John Sullivan of Lockport, a frequent player at the course.
The course has been set up to pay for itself the last four years, but Lewis said it costs money from the county budget in such areas as payroll, insurance and human resources.
"During the (upcoming) committee sessions we'll have some dollar signs on that," Lewis said. The first discussion is expected to occur during the Public Works Committee meeting Oct. 25.
Thomas Yaeger, the county's golf director, said the course employs four full-time workers, including himself, and two of the three maintenance workers are transferred to the Parks Department in the winter.
"We pay for their salaries year-round," Yaeger said. There also are 16 seasonal golf employees.
If another county department carries out a service for the course, the course has to pay a bill for it, Yaeger said.
Since August, a notice has been posted at the course informing golfers of proposed price increases for next season. Yaeger said more revenue might help the course pay for the services Lewis says it consumes. He said when he mentioned that to Lewis in a meeting Oct. 8, "I didn't really get an answer."
"I think it's good for them to look at matters," Lewis said. "That's admirable, . . . (but) the primary reason I brought it on the table was the five priorities I put on the table don't include the golf course.
"It's a tightening of the organization, and we have to make choices like that. Should we spend an hour on that, even if our costs are covered, or spend that hour supporting the vulnerable or making the county safer?"
The county may need special state legislation to sell the course, since it is considered parkland. New York localities cannot unload parkland on their own.
"We would explore our legal options," Lewis said, but he conceded an agreement to lease or franchise the course to a private operator is the most likely outcome.
That is, if the County Legislature wants to unload the property. Legislature Chairman William L. Ross said he has his doubts that Lewis can persuade lawmakers to put the golf course on the block.
"He's going to have a very difficult time because the legislators in the eastern end of the county will defend it, because it's a recreational venue," Ross predicted.
Like most golf courses, the county course has a complex price list based on a golfer's age, the day of the week, the time of year and whether or not a cart is rented. In the fall and spring, the course charges $19 for an adult to play 18 holes with a cart. During the summer, the price is $25 on weekdays and $28 on weekends, Yaeger said.
The price to play without a cart is $14 on a weekday and $17 on a weekend. Yaeger is proposing to increase that to $15 on weekdays and $19 on weekends next year. The course makes no price distinction between Niagara County residents and nonresidents.
Course prices are among the lowest in the area. In Niagara Falls, the city's Hyde Park course charges city residents $16 on a weekday and $18 on a weekend, with a cart costing an extra $20. Nonresidents pay $2 more during the week and $3 extra on weekends.
Deerwood, North Tonawanda's municipal course, charges residents a mere $12. Nonresidents pay $23, and cart rental is an extra $22 for everyone.
Privately owned 18-hole layouts open to the public are more expensive. In Middleport, Niagara-Orleans Country Club charges fall prices $20 on weekdays and $25 on weekends, including a cart. Summer rates are $28 weekdays and $32 weekends.
In the Town of Lockport, Oak Run's fee is $28 on weekdays and $30 on weekends during the fall, with summer prices $3 higher. Carts are included in that tab. Nearby Willowbrooks charges $35 to play on weekdays and $39 on weekends during the summer, although the weekday price is currently being discounted $5 and is scheduled to be cut another $5 next week.
"(The county course) isn't as nice as those courses," said Mike Sarhal of Lockport, a frequent golfer. "The only thing that bothers me is they don't have a 9-hole rate (except for senior citizens). Maybe that will happen if it goes private."
Sullivan said if the county privatizes the golf course, "It would probably be a little more expensive (for players), because nobody could afford to run it for what the county charges."
Not only is the course supposed to pay for its own operations, it's supposed to pay back two chunks of tobacco bond revenue the county spent on it a few years ago.
The county was ridiculed nationally for using part of its share of the national tobacco settlement on a new irrigation system for the course. The county floated a $500,000 bond issue for the system in 1999, but the cost exceeded that figure. The following year, with the tobacco money available, the Legislature voted to allocate $250,000 from that source for finishing the job, and it also paid off the $500,000 bond issue with tobacco funds.
Reader's Digest, CNN and nationally syndicated humor columnist Dave Barry all took their whacks at the golf course irrigation system as a misuse of what was billed as a pot of money meant for health care use. Undaunted, the Legislature decided in December 2001 to spend another $200,000 in tobacco money to buy 60 new golf carts.
However, the golf course was required to pay back the money with interest.
Yaeger said the course has a $1 surcharge, which is collected from season ticket holders every time they play and is built into the other prices. The surcharge money is supposed to pay off the irrigation system, while cart rentals are supposed to cover that loan.
Yaeger acknowledged that the course never hosts 53,000 rounds of golf a year and thus has to dip into regular revenues to make the tobacco repayments.
Lewis said if the county leases or sells the course, the lessor or buyer would likely have to make those repayments to the county.
Yaeger said the course will lose about $50,000 on its operations this year and will have to dip into a reserve fund it had built up, which currently contains about $70,000. The course's full budget for the year was $605,426.
