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No break for country club

By SHEELA RAMAN
Published March 9, 2007

The Dunedin City Commission won't be cutting lease costs this year for the Dunedin Country Club, the private nonprofit club that runs one of the city's golf courses.

Saying dwindling membership at the club has left it unable to pay for capital improvements, the club's leadership had requested the city reduce its lease fees for the golf course, currently 5 percent of its revenue.

But in a 4-1 vote Wednesday, the City Commission said it would be foolish to grant more concessions to the club until a consultant has examined its operations and determined whether there are ways it can cut costs and increase membership.

"It has been an ongoing problem for them financially," said Commissioner Julie Scales. "We need to have an independent third party assess the situation."

Only Mayor Bob Hackworth voted to grant the club more money.

"We don't want the golf course to fail, because the city might end up taking it over and taxpayers would end up subsidizing it," he said.

City Manager Rob DiSpirito agreed. He said the country club is providing an amenity for residents and it is the city's responsibility to be a partner and allow that amenity to stay.

The club's current rent was set in 2003, the last time the club said it needed a price break to finance a new sprinkler system that would allow for more efficient use of reclaimed water. The 2003 change reduced the club's rent from about $90,000 to $45,000 annually.

For the past 40 years, the nonprofit country club has leased the 135-acre course from the city. While the club is private, the golf course is open to the public for a daily greens fee.

Dunedin residents who join the country club pay a $1,000 initiation fee and an $185 monthly fee for a golf membership. For nonresidents, the initiation fee is $1,500. During the past several years, the club has lost nearly a quarter of its members, dropping from 370 to about 300, president Herb Norbom said. The club can accommodate as many as 450 members.

Norbom said he thinks miscommunication is the reason the city voted to deny the lease modifications. He would not comment on the decision beyond a written statement he had prepared.

"The discussion at last Thursday's commission meeting was both confused and confusing," the statement read. "It seems that neither the Club nor the Commission had communicated clearly."

When the commission first discussed the club's latest request for lease modifications in November, it decided to call in a consultant. Recently, the National Golf Foundation has been hired to examine the club's operations, as well as those of St. Andrews Links golf course, which is city-operated, said the city's leisure services director, Harry Gross. The foundation will begin analyzing the country club in coming weeks, he said.

Norbom said in his statement that the club's board of directors has agreed to cooperate with the city's consultant, but has questions about how obligated it is to implement suggestions.

[Last modified March 8, 2007, 22:09:33]