04-03-2023 Park Commission Meeting Minutes

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO PARK COMMISSION April 3, 2023 6:00 o’clock p.m. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Page 4 of 11 Lemons said the earthwork can be expensive at the golf course and probably out of all of the sites would require the most earthwork. However, the engineers that quoted the project felt what they had quoted was pretty realistic. Bederwood has a pretty severe slope but also the playground is there, so you do have a relatively flat footprint. He added baseball is still very popular and the ballfield there is the City’s nicest and largest ballfield. It's definitely worth keeping. It's a great field. We'd like to see more use of it. It’s starting to age a little and could use some TLC. Roath pointed out there's also no irrigation there. The well is now working but it still needs an irrigation system to be installed for the ballpark side of the field. He said the second open question is the financial status of the golf course operation. He and the City’s finance director looked at the history of rounds and revenue at the course in recent years. In 2022 there were 14,000 rounds that generated $382,000. Expenses totaled $336,000 which means operating cash flow of $46,000 that was used to invest in drainage work and pond dredging. That was $75,000, so for the year, we ended up with a deficit of cash flow of $29,000. Lemons said from 2015 through 2022 we averaged 11,000 rounds a year, with 2018 and 2019 being our lowest where we were under 7.000 rounds both years. Roath said the quick estimate is that that golf course is going to be generating about somewhere between $26,.000 and $35,000 a year in cash flow. Unfortunately, we're in a situation now where there's been years of deferred maintenance and deferred investment in the golf course. We're facing a ton of capital expenditures in the near future. Lemons said the City council has done a great job trying to keep the course current with some major upgrades the last two years. This year, we purchased a new T mower and rough mower, we've also purchased a sprayer that we can use at the golf course. Coming up, we do have more needs including a greens mower, greens roller and sod cutter. The big one is the irrigation replacement. They're going for about a million dollars for a nine-hole course. At some point, the maintenance shop will need to be addressed. It's aging and it floods constantly. On the CIP we had the picnic shelter, the lower parking lot, and firepit. The upper parking lot is happening this year. The clubhouse is an old building. At this point, really any dollar amount that's invested into it, you have to question is it the right thing? He said kitchen upgrades came in at $270,000 just to be able to do hot dogs and popcorn. It just wasn't worth it. Roath said the analysis showed that the City has a business in the golf course that is generating $20,000 to $30,000 per year in revenue over operating expenses while facing a larger cost to maintain and grow the business. I guess this is why it matters to this decision. This is one of our prize parks. It's currently being reserved for a single activity that serves only a relatively few Orono residents. We're not saying that this needs to make money or needs to even break even. But we are the gap between making money and covering the expenses which are pretty big here.