The local businessmen who would be the new owners of the Rio Rancho, N.M. property want to make it a semi-private operation that would be rebranded as The Club at Rio Rancho. A “major effort” to increase membership, which has fallen from 600 to under 150, would be part of the plan for the property’s revival, at the same time that public accessibility would also be increased.

Two local business owners are “very enthusiastic” about their purchase of the Rio Rancho, N.M., property, but said the deal is contingent on negotiating better terms for the treated effluent water the golf club buys under a contract with the city that expires this summer. New rates approved last year would take the price from 47 cents per 1,000 gallons to $3.28 per 1,000 gallons on July 1.

The public course in Albuquerque, N.M. replaced four acres of turf with xeriscaping two years ago and reduced its annual water usage by 50 million gallons, earning over $160,000 in rebates. But as rates continue to rise for the water it still uses, the savings amount to “peanuts” and the course continues to “struggle on a day-to-day basis,” says General Manager Ron Meng Sr.

Michael Schumacher of BIZDOC Inc., told the city of Rio Rancho, N.M., that he would not pursue the purchase of the club or his proposal for reduced recycled water rates. In a letter to the city manager, Schumacher said his company learned through “due diligence, [that] the renewal also faces a difficult seller and is challenged by a less-than-receptive governing body.”