Shaky future?
Future for Ontario Golf Course remains cloudy

By Katie Pizza
Argus Observer
Tuesday, June 24, 2008 10:16 AM PDT

Cecilia Garcia, Ontario, chips a few balls on a putting green at Ontario Golf Club Monday. Funding for the course is still a challenge for the City of Ontario after June 10 vote gave the facility $56,500 from the city’s contingency fund to purchase 20 used golf carts.

Ontario — The grass may be greener on the other side for Ontario city officials looking for a way to sell or lease Ontario’s golf course.

In an emergency meeting June 10, Ontario City Council member Bruce Tuttle brought up the idea of hiring a free consultant company to search for a firm to take over course operations and management.

“If they can make it work, it’d be a great idea,” Former City Council member and current Ontario Golf Committee member Earl Cheatham said about the idea in an interview Monday.

Cheatham said he was aware of several municipal golf courses in Pasadena, Calif., that all operate under the same company. He then said the move would benefit the city, since it would eliminate further costs to the city.

Currently, the city of Ontario owes about $360,000 to pay off two loans taken out in the late 1990s for an irrigation system at the course. The debts are not scheduled to be paid off until 2012, Ontario Finance Director Rachel Hopper said previously.

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According to the city’s contractual agreement with the golf course, the city receives 40 percent of the user fees and pass revenues made, while the golf course draws 60 percent. In the past, Hopper said in early June, the city’s portion of the revenue has helped pay off the irrigation system loans, but in recent years, the amount has only been enough to cover a portion of the maintenance costs.

However, the city has not abandoned the course.

June 10, council members voted to use $56,500 from the city’s contingency fund to pay for 20 used golf carts. Ontario Golf Club manager Mark Copley said he received 10 of those carts Saturday morning and anticipates 10 more later this week.

“We’re really excited about it,” he said.

Copley said the carts will increase green-fees, which will help increase revenue for the course.

As for the discussion of selling or leasing the course, Copley said he had not put much thought into the idea, but believed the concept would be a good if the company was the right one.

 He also said the people who buy older courses are often good at what they do.

Cheatham asserted one issue with the golf course is the change in Ontario’s population, which caused usage of the facility to decline.

“We used to have a lot of business owners,” he said. “We don’t have that anymore.”

He said a lot of businesses in Ontario are now owned by what he called “absentee owners,” rather than people who live near their establishments. He also said neighboring golf courses such as Mountain View in Vale and the Scotch Pines Golf Course in Payette are competition for the course.  He compared the current financial issues with a roof, asserting that not fixing leaks leads to larger problems.

Copley is the current manager of the course, but even his continued connection to the course rests on an unsteady tee.

Copley said he may not renew his contract in October but is not “100 percent definite” in that decision.

In early June, Copley said one reason he may not renew his contract is because of a lack of funds for the course, though he did not know if his opinion would change if the golf course received more money.