Commissioners approved a resolution to secure up to $4 million to finance the new clubhouse, parking lot, and entrance road at the rebuilt golf course, including $1.2 million from the town’s general fund. The golf course has been closed since November 2014, when it began a $5 million rebuild and a redesign of the front nine holes.
Commissioners voted 4-1 to move forward with the installment financing plan to finish construction work at the municipal Mooresville (N.C.) Golf Course, the Mooresville Tribune reported.
They approved a resolution to secure up to $4 million from BB&T, at 2.9% interest, to finance the new clubhouse, parking lot and entrance road at the rebuilt golf course. The work will also include $1.2 million from the town’s general fund, the Tribune reported.
The loan must first be approved by the Local Government Commission, which is likely to happen in June. The construction work could begin as soon as July 1, said Dick Poore, director of Cultural Resources, the department that oversees the golf course. No opening date for the course has been projected, the Tribune reported.
Danny Beaver was the only commissioner to oppose the loan, doing so without comment, but Commissioner Lisa Qualls recused herself from the vote because she works for BB&T, the Tribune reported.
The design for the new clubhouse, unveiled in January, calls for a 20,000-sq. ft. facility that will be a full event space for the town—with space for meetings, wedding receptions and a fine-dining restaurant. The clubhouse is expected to cost $3.4 million and the roadwork/parking lot $1.7 million, the Tribune reported.
The golf course has been closed since November 2014, when it began a $5 million rebuild and a redesign of the front nine holes. Work on the course itself was basically completed last fall, but town officials opted not to reopen until sometime this year to give the new grass sufficient time to mature, the Tribune reported.
The $5 million in recreation bond money, however, did not include infrastructure costs like the parking lot and entrance road, or new clubhouse. The old clubhouse was razed in December 2014, the Tribune reported.
Prior to the vote on the loan resolution, four members of the public spoke out against it Monday night. Linda Robinson expressed concerns about the amount of tax dollars being spent on the golf course and other projects she called a “non-essential nature,” the Tribune reported.
“What will the payback over time be of a $4 million installment loan?” she asked. “How much was the town subsidizing the golf course between renovation and how much more will the town have to subsidize with increased maintenance and staff at the new course? How can the taxpayers afford this when we are hearing there is not enough money to repair the roads in town that are in less than good condition. Is this a prudent idea?”
Cliff Homesley said he was concerned that people weren’t aware, when the recreation bonds were passed, that they did not include money for the clubhouse, the Tribune reported.
“I’m sure that perhaps this town board may have been aware of that, but I was not aware of that as a member of the public, and basically assumed that the existing clubhouse that seemed like a decent building would be the clubhouse for the new revised golf course,” Homesley said. “So when people voted on this bond I think it’s safe to say that your votes assumed that the bond was going to cover the entire cost of the improvement to the golf course. So it looks like a bait-and-switch to me. I think there needs to be disclosure to the public about what exactly we’re paying for this golf course, what is it going to cost to maintain it on an annual basis, and what are the salaries going to be of the people who work there, and what is going to be the business model that’s going to support the cost that you’re going to incur for this facility?”
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