Source: Journal and Courier (Lafayette, Ind.)
The Lafayette Parks Board will create an advisory committee for Lafayette Golf Course.
The parks department reclaimed management of the course from a private operator this month. The course continues to encounter financial difficulties after two consecutive flood-plagued summers that drastically cut the number of days of play and income.
Parks superintendent Ted Bumbleburg said he would propose a list of six names to the board when it next meets in December.
"It will be very beneficial to the people down there," said board member Vic Klinker. "The public likes its input."
Prior to course management being outsourced to Lafayette Golf LLC five years ago, the board had an advisory committee in place.
Meanwhile, the board also has approved a year-end, non-reverting fund budget for the course that will pay the salary and benefits of two employees who have agreed to stay on as well as buy needed chemicals and tools.
Bumbleburg also updated the board on Tropicanoe Cove finances, which were in the red this year. Expenditures of almost $273,000 outpaced income by more than $50,000.
This year's attendance of 54,878 was more than 10,000 less than last year and more than 20,000 less than 2002. But Bumbleburg said this is not the first season that the aquatic center has lost money.
"Positive revenue seasons offset negative seasons," Bumbleburg said. "You just hope you have more positive years than not."
Park amusement manager Clay Finney blamed a summer full of cloudy and rainy days that averaged 80 degrees instead of 85 degrees.
Vinton Pool and Castaway Bay each averaged fewer than 100 visitors per day. The too pools brought in a combined $32,997.41 versus combined expense of $129,045.13.
Bumbleburg estimated that the dip in Tropicanoe Cove visitors alone cost the department $60,000.
Changes in the rides available at Columbian Park next year also could hit the department in the pocketbook.
Visitors rode such attractions as the Train, Turnpike, Scrambler and Helicopters 92,848 times in 2004, generating $78,697 of revenue versus $53,900 in expenses.
Zoo renovations are prompting the moving of the last two , as well as the Small Boats and Horse & Buggy, to the former playground east of Tropicanoe Cove. The Turnpike cars and the almost $23,000 in ticket sales they generated will not return.