Mulligan? Cedar Rapids studies stake in city-owned golf courses as losses mount

CEDAR RAPIDS — City officials are hiring a consultant to evaluate its municipal golf operations, which include four popular city-owned courses but ones that lose money every year.

Gardner, Jones, Twin Pines and Ellis Golf Courses have all reopened for the season attracting weather-hardened golf enthusiasts such as Jack Peacock, 76, and Ron Kotaska, 68, who don't mind a blustery morning round while breezing through the front nine at Jones on Monday. The duo said the public courses are well maintained and the price is right, but they should be turned over to the private sector.

'They ought to farm it out, sit back and get the money,' Peacock said driving a ball through the wind to the fairway.

Others fear privatizing the courses would drive up the price, which range from $23 to $45 for adults for 18 holes or $606 to $924 for a season pass, and make it less accessible.

The city is hiring a consultant to study how to make the golf department sustainable, and, if this is not possible, what is the best alternative.

Under consideration are a full spectrum of options from selling off or closing one or more of the courses, leasing to private operators, or if more financial investment can open new revenue streams, such as expanding food and beverage, merchandising, banquets, and off-season activities. Pricing, privatizing maintenance, and whether the golf market is saturated will also be considered.

Cedar Rapids City Council will be presented with a contract for reviewing the golf department, budgeted at $50,000, later this month. The report would be due in early October.

The Cedar Rapids golf department ran $350,000 in the red on average in the three most recent fiscal years, and has a net deficit of $2 million. Taxpayers cover the shortfalls through the general fund.

Additional costs are also on the horizon. The fiscal 2017 budget identifies infrastructure needs, including three new clubhouses — at Ellis, Twin Pines and Gardner — a well and irrigation upgrade at Twin Pines, turf renovation of Gardner and Twin Pines, and parking lot and cart path maintenance.

This year, the city will transfer an extra $260,000 from the general fund, which comes largely from property taxes, to cover the operational deficit with the caveat the department examines ways to become more sustainable. The department has about 10.5 full time and 80 seasonal workers.

'As an enterprise fund it is expected to break even or make money, and we generally don't,' said Sven Leff, Cedar Rapids parks and recreation service director. 'It typically requires some subsidy from the city general fund and in a climate where no new taxes, valuations are falling or steady, the city is looking for revenue. We are trying to figure out how to make golf more sustainable.'

The city will explore whether golf should be included in the general fund, the same as aquatics or athletics. Golf is the largest segment of the city's recreation budget revenue and has the second most patronage after aquatics, Leff said.

City officials briefly entertained the idea of selling Twin Pines in 2007. Leff doesn't anticipate the city will sell the courses.

Cedar Rapids' courses compete with a dozen privately-run golf courses and country clubs at a time when golf participation is on the decline and more courses are closing than opening.

The number of rounds golfed at the four Cedar Rapids courses dipped .5 percent in fiscal 2014 to 101,952, and another 5 percent to 96,684 in fiscal 2015, the last full year. The city projects a 3 percent increase in golf rounds in fiscal 2016 and 2017, back up to 102,573 rounds.

Participation fluctuates substantially based on the weather, said golf director Lisa Miller. The courses are at the mercy of early and late winters and rainy summers, and half of the holes at Jones close when it floods, she said. The back nine at Jones is closed temporarily for a sewer upgrade.

Cedar Rapids City Councilor Kris Gulick said he supports keeping and operating the golf courses through the city, but would like to see it become more sustainable.

'It's an amenity we need as a community, but how we make it become the most efficient operation we can, is what is important,' Gulick said.