In a proposed budget that relies on 4.8% tax hike and American Rescue Plan funds to increase spending, Concord taxpayers will again be asked to pay for improvements at the Beaver Meadow Golf Course’s clubhouse and grounds in the next fiscal year.
Concord’s golf fund has rallied after a string of bad years before the pandemic. This year, it will both cover its expenses and transfer money to the general fund. But more costly improvements at the course totaling more than $850,000 will be financed with borrowed money that must be paid back by taxpayers.
“Reflecting the increased year-round popularity and success of the golf course facility and property, several significant projects are envisioned for Fiscal Year 2023,” City Manager Tom Aspell wrote in his letter introducing the budget.
If the current budget is approved, Concord taxpayers will be paying for capital improvements at the golf course through general obligation bonds from the general fund, including $490,000 to redesign the clubhouse, $325,000 for irrigation, and a $40,000 tractor.
Separate smaller bonds will be taken out and paid back by the golf fund, including $50,000 to pay for phase two of a tree management project, $70,000 for a fairway mower, plus $15,000 for irrigation costs.
In the next fiscal year, a total of $855,000 in general fund spending at the course will paid through general obligation bonds. In 2024, the capital improvement program includes general fund spending on a clubhouse and parking lot for about $4.5 million.
A five-member committee recommended building a new facility, with space for the New Hampshire Golf Association as a paying tenant, in a report to the city council in December. “Building a new facility will help Beaver Meadow continue to grow as a year-round facility over the next 50 years!” the Ad Hoc Beaver Meadow Golf Course Clubhouse Committee wrote.
This month, some of the clubhouse flaws were illustrated when a broken hot water heater flooded onto the carpet and shut down the restaurant for the day, costing the course revenue on a sunny Friday.
Ward 3 City Councilor and longtime Beaver Meadow member Jennifer Kretovic pointed out other issues, like rotting wood, a sagging ceiling, and a single flimsy bracket securing a fence that protected the building’s cooling system. Kretovic also said that the uneven parking lot pavement had posed accessibility challenges for voters in city elections.
In the weeks leading up to budget adoption, signs supporting the golf course’s offerings have appeared on lawns in the neighborhood surrounding Beaver Meadow, created by Kretovic’s husband Bill and former At-Large Councilor Mark Coen. Councilor Kretovic and Coen both sit on the Beaver Meadow Golf Course Clubhouse Committee with three other members from the business community.
The city changed the golf fund from a self-sustaining enterprise fund to a more open-ended special revenue fund in fiscal year 2020. Enterprise funds are meant to be self-sufficient, functioning like businesses and charging users, while special revenue funds simply track revenues to be used for a specific purpose. The existing enterprise funds are for water and wastewater.
Deputy City Manager Brian LeBrun said the decision was made after conversations with the city’s auditors, and that it made sense given the transfers in recent years from the general fund to the golf fund.
“In special revenue funds especially, there tends to be more support from the general operating fund to support operations,” LeBrun said.
Five times since fiscal year 2013, the golf fund’s expenses have overshadowed revenues, requiring a transfer of money from the general fund.
“If it wasn’t for COVID, the golf course would be running an incredible deficit,” said former Ward 2 Councilor Allan Herschlag.
Since the pandemic, golf nationwide has seen a resurgence in popularity. While it’s impossible to predict if that trend will continue, Kretovic said the course’s 60 junior members and an increase in women golfers at Beaver Meadow are good signs for the course’s long-term prospects.
Long-term projections for the golf fund estimate that it will operate at a net loss between 2024 and 2028. However, that includes budgeted transfers from the golf fund to the general fund, which are calculated each year to cover city administrative costs.
“We try not to overstate our revenues as we go through this,” LeBrun said. “If golf were to take a nosedive across the country like in years past, we may have to reevaluate.”
About two-thirds of the golf fund’s revenues come from fees, including seasonal passes, cart rentals, daily course fees, and the cost to use the year-round indoor simulator. Another 10% of revenues come from the golf pro shop.
Despite financial assistance from Concord taxpayers, city residents get no discounts to play at the course and pay the same fees as everyone else.
When a request to hire a full-time assistant golf professional at about $74,000 a year came before the council in March, Ward 5 Councilor Stacey Brown and Ward 10 Councilor Zandra Rice Hawkins asked whether the council would also increase wages for lifeguards at the city’s seven pools.
Last summer, only five of seven pools could open because the city struggled to hire enough lifeguards, who at the time made between $10.89 to $12.76 an hour.
“I think the golf course is great, however, I have heard from many families … that they really want to see the pools open longer,” Brown said at the March meeting. She was the only councilor to vote against hiring the full-time assistant golf professional.
The fiscal 2023 budget included raises for workers at both the pools and the golf course.
The Parks and Recreation Department asked for $17,576 for wage increases for seasonal workers like lifeguards, who will be paid between $12 and $16 an hour this summer. If the budget is approved, the golf course will get an extra $28,000 for temporary workers’ wages, while Arena staff will get $7,100 in wage adjustments.
Kretovic said in an interview in May that Concord taxpayers should care about the golf course as a community resource that makes the city more attractive. Just like the pools and parks, Beaver Meadow also costs money to operate.
“This is about quality of life,” she said.
Garrison Pool, on North State Street in Ward 3, was one of the pools that remained closed last summer. Kretovic said that she could have pushed to open that pool, but she didn’t think it made sense for the city at the time.
“There has to be a give and take through the whole community,” she said.