Council Meeting Wrapup for October 16th, 2006 - Part 2
After a brief break, Mr. Hair provided his PowerPoint presentation. He provided three different options. A buy all option, where the City would outright purchase the golf course, and perhaps turn the club house into a mixed use facility. As a second option, Sell off the club house area, with appropriate land use changes, requiring the buyer to sell the golf course portion to the city, at a much lower rate. The third option was a mix of both of the above.
Mr. Day recommended some additional changes to the motion. He asked that the CM negotiate with the golf course management, reminding them that they owed taxes, and debt service. He recommended that we potentially take over the debt service. He also cautioned that he wanted a temporary solution, one in which we would eventually turn this back over to a private venture.
Mrs. Bertolini asked to be involved as well, because it was in her district. All of these items made it into the motion.
Mayor F recommends a $15 million offer. He requests of Mark Mason, information about whether or not this was possible. Mr. Mason does agree that it is possible for us to finance this debt. Mrs. Bertolini asks that discussions pause, not wanting to “put all of our eggs in one basket.”
Mrs. Lepera expressed concern about adding on expenses, with the potential of a decrease in property values. She stated that she was unwilling to risk her tax payer’s money to become ‘flippers’ of property. She also shared that she saw a change in the 18 months from the previous discussions. She pointed to the fact that noone was complaining about the condo/hotel in this latest round.
Mr. Hair reminded the room that no other park facility makes a profit. He used the “frog in the boiling water” analogy, to remind us that we have spent 15 million on purchasing land for Festival Park.
The motion passed 6 to 1 Lepera was the only dissenting vote.
