Shaffer: Cherry Hill is making money

By Scott Merzbach
Staff Writer

Published on May 16, 2008

Revenues for Cherry Hill Golf Course are expected to match or exceed operating expenses, allowing the public golf course to turn a profit this budget year.

With receipts from May and June still to come in and be counted, Town Manager Larry Shaffer said the course is already projected to have revenues at least $25,153 more than expenditures.

"It's covering expenses, and it's running way ahead of where we were," Shaffer said.

Greens fees of $105,833 have been collected - $34,191 more than the $71,642 brought in last year - and these fees are expected to climb to about $150,000. Money from cart rentals and memberships are both up, as well, giving the course a chance to make money, rather than have a deficit as has been the custom.

"In every area, we've increased revenue, and in every area we've reduced expense," Shaffer said.

But for Larry Kelley, a Town Meeting member who remains critical of the property purchase that occurred more than 20 years ago, not all expenditures or costs are being counted, meaning the course has continued to lose money.

"When you factor in all of the hidden costs, then it didn't make money," Kelley said.

At Monday's Town Meeting session, during a discussion on spending $22,000 in the capital budget for a greens mower for Cherry Hill, Kelley pointed out that this purchase is twice the cost of being able to keep the Jones Library open on Mondays for the next two years.

Kelley also brought up the Niblick Golf Management proposal, in which the Bolton-based company offered to pay Amherst $5,000 a year, plus a payment in lieu of taxes of about $25,000 to run the course. This deal was rejected by Shaffer last year.

Shaffer said keeping Cherry Hill in-house and putting Barbara Bilz of Leisure Services and Supplemental Education in charge has been better for the course and the people who use it, as well as for the town's finances.

"I'm trying to demonstrate that this arrangement is financially superior, and vastly programmatically superior, too," Shaffer said.

Shaffer noted that Cherry Hill is much better shape than in fiscal 2005 and 2006, when Town Meeting appropriated $109.781 and $35,649 to pay for the course.

But Kelley points to the ongoing hidden costs, such as health insurance, benefits for employees and insurance on buildings, as well as future capital purchases, as expenses that the town's budget still contributes to.

Shaffer said it is important to continue examining Cherry Hill. "I've been watching it close, not because I think it needs it, but because I'm very interested in it," Shaffer said.

The golf course revenue comes even without crediting the $4,000 to $5,000 raised from Winterfest, which was held at Cherry Hill in February.

Shaffer said continuing to increase revenue can be accomplished through marketing and bringing new, novel programs to Cherry Hill, such as disc golf, and targeting younger female golfers.

Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.