By Betsy Finklea
The City of Dillon municipal golf course was discussed at the Dillon City Council’s November meeting on Monday night.
Mayor Todd Davis said he wanted to disclose information about the golf course as accurately as he can. He said when he looks at the golf course he looks at what he called the “big three”—cart fees, tournament fees, and cart/green fees for non-members.
Davis said that tournament fees were seven percent above where it was budgeted. He said cart fees were obviously a concern. Davis said it was the slow part of the season, and he hopes it will pick up after football season. He said cart fees had reached 28 percent. Davis said cart and green fees for non-members were tracking a tad behind where they predicted.
Davis said membership is skewed. He said there were some members who were part of the old regime who had paid prior to June and who were not included in the numbers. Last month, there were right at 50 members, but that does not include those who paid previous to June.
He said on golf course expenditures they were doing a great job.
City Manager Glen Wagner said that each month since football season started that the golf course had dropped off. He said the golf course will need subsidizing.
Davis said they knew it was going to be a learning curve the first year and probably into the second year. He said the city was going to stick with this thing. He said while it is the slow part of the season that the course looks fantastic. He encouraged the public to go see it and play. Davis said if they play now they will want to play again.
Davis said if they lose the golf course, they will lose their history also. He said another thing to consider is how many charities use the golf course to put on tournaments to raise money. He said various charities raised close to $70,000 last year. He asked what they would do to raise money.
Davis said they committed to three years and that they have a plan. He said there is a perception that this was money thrown in the air, when it has been planned. He said they have disclosed everything and been upfront. He said people with questions should ask City Manager Glen Wagner or go look themselves.
Davis said that some of the golf course employees came to the Dillon Rotary Club meeting to speak about the junior golf program they are doing.
Davis said there is opportunity at the golf course. He said they will stick with their commitment and at the end, they will have to make a decision. He said one heard the same stuff about the Wellness Center, but that one doesn’t hear that anymore. He said it will be a sad day in Dillon when they lose the golf course.
Wagner said the city council had a decision to make on how to maintain the golf course during slow play to pay bills. He said they could transfer hospitality funds or they could look into possibly cutting back on operation times, etc.
Councilman Phil Wallace said the golf course should be looked at like the fitness center. It is not a business. It is a quality of life issue. He said they knew with the Wellness Center in the town the size of Dillon, it would have to be subsidized. He said they knew that going in.
Wallace said if they finish with a $130,000 deficit at the golf course that it is a countywide golf course and perhaps the county would increase their contribution.
Councilman John Braddy said one can’t put a dollar figure on intangibles. He said this was a quality of life issue and that if an industry looked here and there was not a golf course then the industry might not come. He said one can’t put a dollar value on there.
Davis said to answer the question of Wagner that the answer was obviously to pull funds from the hospitality tax fund.
Councilman Johnny Eller said he felt like this would happen when they started. He said that is why he wanted to cap the amount of hospitality funds they would use. Eller said now every month or two months they would have to pull money out of the hospitality tax funds.
Braddy said this was not tax money. This was money they used for quality of life issues such as the Wellness Center. He said they had the money to do it with without burdening the citizens of Dillon.  Braddy said they knew they were going to have to subsidize the golf course, and they were barely getting in. He said they were “wading in the water” at this point. Braddy said the Wellness Center had proven to be a good thing for the City of Dillon. He said that they need to give the golf course the same amount of time. He said this was something needed for the city and the county and stressed again that it was an intangible that one can’t put a dollar figure on.
Eller said that one can’t play golf year round that it was seasonal. Braddy said actually one can play year round.
Braddy made a motion to allow the city management to move the money from the hospitality fund to the golf course fund as needed through the winter months up to $15,000. This was seconded by Wallace. Voting for the motion were Councilwoman Connie Manning, Councilman Wallace, Mayor Davis, Councilman James Washington, and Councilman Braddy. Councilman Eller opposed the motion.