THE PROBLEM IS EPIDEMIC

From the Bowling Green (OH) Daily News:

Not leasing failing golf course is absurd

Posted: Thursday, October 20, 2011 12:00 am

Now let me get this straight. Parks and Recreation is losing around $200,000 a year of our taxpayer dollars operating the Paul Walker Golf Course.

Mr. Gary is offering to lease the course and bring it up to USGA standards. That means we would not be losing the $200,000 and the city would have the income from the lease that Mr. Gary would be paying.

However, Parks and Recreation says they don’t want to be in competition with Mr. Gary. Why are they afraid of the competition? Would it mean that they would have to start doing a better job with the other courses?

They say that if the course is leased to Mr. Gary, they want him to pay them a percentage of his profits.

How ridiculous does that sound, and by the way, what makes them so sure he will make a profit when they are losing their socks in running it?

Could it be that there is some hanky panky going on? Are they charging some unrelated expenses to the golf course to hide them?

The whole thing seems to have an air of mystery to me. Parks and Recreation says their mission is to provide a service to us. I think it would be a great service to us to quit losing $200,000 a year and still have a golf course serving us.

Perhaps someone in a position to do so should look very closely at the income and expenses of the course and see if there are some hidden reasons behind this whole thing.

Jay Eatherly
Bowling Green