Bryan golf course
James Lindsey, 8, hits from a rubber tee while participating in a golf clinic at the Travis B. Bryan Municipal Golf Course in June 2012.
Posted: Wednesday, January 23, 2013 12:00 am
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Updated: 9:41 am, Wed Jan 23, 2013.
The Eagle
The Bryan City Council wants staff and board members to look into reducing the size of the municipal golf course.
The council, led by Mayor Jason Bienski, on Tuesday instructed staff to postpone moving forward with the Travis B. Bryan Golf Course strategic plan that was introduced in September and instead have the parks and recreation advisory board examine other recreational options for the land. Bienski floated the idea of reducing the number of holes from 18 to nine and using the other space for youth baseball fields.
“If rounds are down throughout this United States and fewer people are playing and have time to play it — I love the idea of a nine-hole course. I could probably play that,” Bienski said.
The mayor proposed similar ideas in 2011, after voters overwhelmingly rejected the idea of revoking the course’s parkland designation. City officials had negotiated to sell the land, which is on highly sought-after real estate.
Council examined the future for the golf course during its workshop, which mainly consisted of a financial update from staff and proposals for how to improve the course.
The staff proposals, which council decided not to move forward with, included constructing new bathrooms, improving lighting, renovating the changing rooms, general landscaping improvements and renovating the 10th fairway visible from Villa Maria Road.
City staff is entertaining a request for proposals for a contractor to operate a restaurant and grill at the golf course. Deputy City Manager Hugh Walker said those plans would still move forward.
The last year the golf course made a profit, according to staff reports, was 2009. The city spent $948,000 and took in $664,000 from the golf course in 2012. That gap is projected to widen to $1.2 million in expenses and $736,000 in revenues in 2013.
Still, Bienski said the golf course was a quality-of-life issue and not a revenue generator.
That sentiment was shared by Hugh Seale, a lifelong Bryan resident and golfer at the course. Seale, who was part of the 72 percent of residents who voted to keep the golf course in a 2011 citywide referendum, would like to see the course stay at 18 holes.
“That would be like saying we don’t want a 100-yard football field,” Seale said. “It would be like shutting half the library off.”
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Wednesday, January 23, 2013 12:00 am.
Updated: 9:41 am.
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