Source: The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Okla.)
The private management company that operates public, city-owned Crimson Creek Golf Course has reversed its decision to opt out of its contractual agreement with the city.
Last month, officials with Millennium Golf Properties told Crimson Creek trustees they wanted out of a 5 1/2-year contract less than a year after signing the deal.
Millennium Director of Golf Andy McCormick said the company could not make enough money to properly maintain and operate the course. Millennium owns and operates both Coffee Creek and River Oaks golf clubs in Edmond, but has no ownership in Crimson Creek.
Monday morning, El Reno city officials received a letter from Millennium Golf expressing the company’s desire to continue operating the golf course under the current contract.
Under the terms of the deal reached late last year and made effective Jan. 1, Millennium Golf pays the authority a $2,500 annual lease in exchange for the right to maintain and operate the golf course. The contract is set to expire in mid-2009.
City Manager Doug Henley said the city wants to keep its contract with Millennium because it is projected to save the city an average of $150,000 each year. That’s how much the city paid from its general fund to support operation of the course.
An operational audit has been requested by trustees to ensure that private management of the course is on par with expectations.
Trustees expressed discontent with Millennium Golf during a Monday night recreational authority meeting.
“We see this as more of an operational audit to check and see how the golf course is operating in terms of current management practices,” Henley said. “All of those things will be looked at.”
Henley recommended trustees hire the auditing firm Crawford and Associates, which performed a similar operational audit nearly two years ago before the city contracted with Millennium Golf.
The city wants to keep audit costs at less than $5,000.
“This kind of audit helps both parties,” Henley said. “If there are areas that need to be tweaked, it’s time to identify them and tweak them.” Records indicate Crimson Creek has not been profitable since reopening in July 1998 after the city invested nearly $6 million, including interest, in rebuilding the golf course.
El Reno voters approved a seven-year, quarter-cent sales tax in June 2002 to pay off the golf course debt. Less than $5 million of the debt remains.
Annual bond payments of up to $295,000 expire in 2020, but the sales tax subsidy expires in 2009.
McCormick said Crimson Creek suffered from wet and generally unsuitable weather for golf this fall. Only 584 rounds were played in November, the lowest total this year.