Some residents are angry about the plan to lease the municipal golf course after five parties responded to the city’s request for proposals, blaming the city for the property’s financial mismanagement. Any lease of the golf course still is “in the infancy stages—it’s not a done deal,” said Ray O’Connell, president of City Council, at a public meeting.
Some Allentown, Pa., residents are angry about the possibility of the Allentown Municipal Golf Course being leased, and they sounded off at Wednesday night’s City Council meeting, the Allentown-based WFMZ 69 News reported.
Any lease of the golf course still is “in the infancy stages—it’s not a done deal,” said Ray O’Connell, president of City Council. He said a lease would have to be approved by City Council, but stressed: “It has a long way to go.”
O’Connell explained the city sent out a request for proposals to find out if anyone is interested in leasing the course. Five parties responded, according to O’Connell, and all participated in a visit to the course on Monday. He said formal proposals from those parties must be submitted to the city by November 3, WFMZ reported.
“They’re just exploring to see if they can do it,” said council member Julio Guridy.
Allentown Municipal is in a financial sand trap and sinking deeper, according to Francis Dougherty, the city’s managing director. “The intent of this RFP is to find out what the market is saying about golf courses,” explained Dougherty. “We don’t know what the market will say. I don’t have an economist on staff to tell me.
“All I know is golf is declining around the country. Golf courses are closing left and right.”
Dougherty said the city needs a better understanding of the monetary value of its course, and about what the private sector is doing with golf courses. He said he loves the city’s golf course, as do people who use it, and it is his “firm intent” to ensure it is thriving, WFMZ reported.
“Whether that hopefully means keeping it in house, which would be what I would love to see, or leasing it out remains to be seen,” said the city administrator. “We frankly do not have enough information to say ‘how do we solve it?’”
Resident Lou Hershman predicted that whoever leases the golf course will have to raise fees for people to play there in order to pay the city for that lease and still make a profit. Resident Michael Kaminski agreed, saying if the golf course is leased, it will be run at an increased cost, WFMZ reported.
Kaminski questioned whether Allentown is financially solvent “if we’re looking to give away anything and everything. Are we being lied to, being told everything is hunky-dory and all of a sudden it’s not? You’ve got to stop somewhere. We can’t just keep giving away the city.”
“There’s no way we should look into a lease,” said Hershman. “I don’t understand how we’re losing money on the golf course. There’s something wrong out there.” He said the city should find ways to cut expenses and continue to operate the course. Hershman also said the city got $221 million when it leased its water and sewer systems to Lehigh County Authority in 2013, but maintained that lease will cost the city $790 million, WFMZ reported.
Council member Jeanette Eichenwald is afraid rows of seats in City Council chambers again will be filled with consultants and lawyers that ultimately will cost the city not only money, but also “a vital, important, beautiful resource that we have.” Eichenwald said the city should focus on ways to make the golf course more financially viable rather than leasing it. She said she didn’t know any lease was being considered until she found out from a reporter, WFMZ reported.
Dougherty said earlier this year City Council challenged the administration to solve a negative financial balance at the golf course. He said many council members questioned why the city’s 118,000 residents should subsidize a small sub-set of people who play golf at Allentown Municipal, WFMZ reported.
In response to that challenge, Dougherty said a nine-page “white paper” articulating what the administration sees as problems at the golf course was delivered to City Council in June. Reviewing key points in that document, Dougherty said Allentown Municipal has had only one positive revenue year in the last five years. He also said the course’s cash balance dropped from $122,462 to negative $226,092, WFMZ reported.
“The course will continue to drain its cash balance and negatively impact city finances,” Dougherty said.
Resident Glenn Hunsicker told City Council the number of patrons at the golf course increased from 45,600 in 2013 to more than 64,000 in 2014. And at the end of 2014, said Hunsicker, the course had a year-end balance of $2.3 million. Yet Hunsicker said another financial report claims the course had a $211,000 loss in the first six months of this year, WFMZ reported.
“There’s something wrong,” said Hunsicker, admitting he did not understand the discrepancy between those statistics. “I want to point this out before you make rash decisions and lease this facility, because we can’t sell off all these assets in the city.
“Municipal golf courses are supposed to be for the people, especially the citizens of Allentown, to be able to play golf at a reasonable rate.”
Dougherty said the administration’s white paper on the golf course is available to the public through the city clerk’s office. He said it also shows annual shift differential payments at the golf course increased by one thousand percent in the last five years. He said he will need to talk to the SEIU union about helping the city contain employee costs at the course, which he said account for most of its expense increases, WFMZ reported.
Calling the golf course a treasure of Allentown, resident Don Ringer recommended tabling any action to lease it until a new mayor takes office, because of “the bad decisions made by this administration on everything.”
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