Golf course: Red or black?

By Nick Grabbe
Staff Writer

Published on August 10, 2007

Cherry Hill Golf Course has reported a 12 percent increase in revenues in the fiscal year that just ended, and claimed a $7,179 surplus. But a critic of the municipal ownership of the course said it is still costing taxpayers money and should be turned over to private management.

Amherst acquired the golf course 20 years ago to preserve open space and prevent a condominium development. Proponents of the purchase said the course would pay its expenses through golf fees, but it has consistently needed infusions of town money.

Cherry Hill used to be like the water fund, whose expenses are covered through user fees. But a year ago it became part of the Leisure Services budget, which gets about a quarter of its money from taxes.

Leisure Services attributes Cherry Hill's improved finances to "changes in the overall direction and management of the course as well as improvements to course and clubhouse conditions," said Assistant Director Barbara Bilz.

Cherry Hill has started a women's clinic that has drawn 75 participants, a youth clinic drawing 20, and the women's league has expanded, she said. The course has also enhanced its collaboration with the University of Massachusetts, she said.

"We're doing a lot of good programs at Cherry Hill," she said. "If you ask around the golf industry, it's flat. For our revenues to be up 12 percent is huge."

Cherry Hill is planning morning discounts for seniors this fall, and for women on Wednesdays. The course hopes to draw on the popularity of Ultimate Frisbee in Amherst with a disk golf tournament this fall.

Larry Kelley, a longtime critic of the course, said its surplus becomes a deficit if you count $31,000 in such expenses as employee benefits and insurance. These expenses come under another part of the town budget.

"They know darn well that cost exists and they're trying to give the impression the golf course made money last year," he said.

These "hidden costs" are increasing in the new fiscal year, he said. Although the cost of employee benefits will decline, Town Meeting has approved $15,000 in capital improvements for Cherry Hill, he said.

"Larry has a point. If you want to think of Cherry Hill as self-sustaining, then it's not," said Alice Carlozzi, chairwoman of the Finance Committee.

But every other departmental budget puts its expenses for employee benefits in a separate account, and other recreational programs receive tax money, Carlozzi said.

"We don't look at the swimming pools as self-supporting," she said.

Amherst should have accepted the proposal from a golf management company to pay about $30,000 to take over the course, Kelley said.