OGDEN -- The city council is supporting a so-called pay-as-you-go plan to incrementally correct design flaws at financially troubled Mt. Ogden Golf Course.
The aim of the plan is to reduce the municipality's annual $300,000 subsidy for course operations, said City Council Chairwoman Caitlin K. Gochnour.
The council also wants to treat the course as an investment while making it affordable and challenging, she said. "We want it to be the best course it can be."
The city council has reached a consensus on several goals aimed at making the course more playable and ultimately more profitable, including:
SBlt Developing a renovation plan that will address problems with the course and, based on financial forecasts, reduce the amount of city subsidies.
SBlt Undertaking renovations in phases over time without borrowing money.
SBlt Developing facilities that will allow additional use of the course for weddings, snowshoeing and other activities.
SBlt Preserving open space on and around the golf course.
SBlt Paying off golf course debt as quickly as possible. The city council believes this can be accomplished by increasing the amounts being paid on loans from several city funds to the golf course. As one loan is paid off, the funds normally allocated for that debt would then be applied toward other golf course loans.
The city has borrowed $670,000 from its cemetery perpetual care fund and $1.4 million from its general fund for operational deficits at Mt. Ogden Golf Course.
The balance owed on the cemetery fund loan is about $185,000 and about $935,000 for the general fund loan, said John Patterson, the city's chief administrative officer.
Patterson said he appreciates the city council's desire to make needed improvements at the course without borrowing more money. However, the city has only a limited amount of funds for a variety of pressing projects, he said.
"There are many priorities for available financial resources," he said. "Many (of those projects) stand in front of the golf course."
The course is losing money because it's poorly designed and too difficult for most golfers, according to the city's administration.
Richfield-based Jones & DeMille Engineering Inc., and Jon Garner, a senior design associate with Nicklaus Design, headquartered in North Palm Beach, Fla., have presented the council with options for correcting the course's flaws.
In addition to overhauling the course, the proposal from Jones & DeMille Engineering calls for the replacement of all cart paths, the installation of a new irrigation system and the remodeling of the clubhouse to leave golfers with a positive lasting impression.
The improvements would cost $3.5 million to $4.3 million.
Garner has presented the council with four options for redesigning the course, costing an estimated $4.5 million to $8 million.
The four options include the installation of a new irrigation system, rebuilt greens, new cart paths, the widening of fairways and improvements to tee boxes.
The city council hopes to discuss its goals for Mt. Ogden Golf Course with the administration as part of Ogden's 2010-11 annual budget that must be adopted no later than June 22.
Related link: This article is a topic of discussion at Weber County Forum.
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