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HomeMy WebLinkAboutGolf Board Minutes - July 10, 2018 1 July 10, 2018 Board Members: Chairman John Watson Eva Wright Jon Johnson Derik Taylor Mike Farnworth Non-Voting Members: Matthew Nielson – City Finance Officer Christopher Mann – City Council Member Todd Smith – County Commissioner Rob Wood – Attorney Duffy McFarland – Golf Pro Seth McFarland – Golf Grounds Greg McInnes – City Parks Manager Justin Beard – City Engineer 4:30 P.M. Airport Board Meeting Roll Call of Board Members: Attending: Chairman John Watson, Eva Wright, Jon Johnson, Derik Taylor, Mike Farnworth City Staff Attending Meeting: Daniel Torres, Noah Phethean and Marianna Gonzalez Review Prior Meeting Minutes: A. July 10th , 2018 Board Member Jon Johnson moved to approve the Golf Board Meeting Minutes for June 5th, 2018; Board Member Derik Taylor seconded the motion; Chairman John Watson asked for a vote: Those voting aye Those voting nay Chairman John Watson None Board Member Eva Wright Board Member Derik Taylor Board Member Jon Johnson Board Member Mike Farnworth The motion carried Financial Report: City Staff Accountant, Noah Phethean reported on the Budget Totals Report for Teton Lakes Golf Course and the Legacy Golf Course. The daily fees are down by about $23,600.00 at Teton Lakes from last year. The current fees collected are at about $63,959.00, last year on June 30th, 2017 the total fees collected were at $87,547.00. The cart rentals are also down. Golf Pro Duffy McFarland asked how the city knows the cart rentals are down. Mr. Phethean explained they are comparing this year’s cart rentals to previous years. The projections indicate a shortage of more than half compared to last year’s golf cart rentals. 35 North 1st East Rexburg, ID 83440 Phone: 208.359.3020 x2313 Fax: 208.359.3022 blairk@rexburg.org www.rexburg.org Golf Board Meeting Minutes July 10, 2018 2 John Watson asked why the daily fees and cart rentals are down as much as they are. Mr. McFarland said there are a number of reasons one being the weather and the other the increase in fees. Staff Accountant Phethean reported there is a negative balance carryover of $38,600.00 from last year. They hoped that with city/county’s share and the increase in fees would help mitigate the carryover; however, with the decrease in revenue it doesn’t appear that the negative balance will be paid down. The Legacy Golf Course has a projected loss of $35,800.00. There is an overage of about $7,000.00 in the number of the contracted hours for the club house employees. The overage in staff hours will be recuperated by the golf management contract. Council Member Mann asked if it’s the city or Mr. McFarland that schedule the golf course employee’s hours for work. Mr. McFarland said he and another golf course employee schedule the employee hours. Mr. Phethean said he believes some of overage in hours comes from employees helping with the Junior Golf Lessons; however, those hours were not intended to be used for the golf lessons. Mr. McFarland questioned the time allotted to the club house employees for the accounting practices. He suggested that Mr. Phethean come review the reconciliation process of the reports and money collected during the employee’s shift to make sure enough time has been allotted to complete the process. Mr. Taylor questioned the projected hours allotted for the money reconciliation process and if the overage in hours for that process should be charged to the management contract. Mr. Phethean indicated he believes there is sufficient time allotted in between customers for the reconciliation of the funds collected during the closing hours of the golf course. Mr. McFarland said they have had to turn away a few customers because the employee is working on the accounting reconciliation process before the golf course closes. Staff Accountant Phethean reported the county’s portion for the cost of the golf carts has not been received by the city. Mr. Smith asked if a bill has been sent to the county. Mr. Phethean replied yes a bill was sent to the county. Mr. McFarland questioned why the projected loss of the Legacy Golf Course is at $35,800.00. Mr. Phethean replied Finance Officer Nielson calculated the projection loss; therefore, he is unsure what information was used to calculate the loss in revenue for the Legacy Golf Course. The projected profit for Teton Lakes is $10,600.00; however, with the projected loss at the Legacy Golf Course Teton Lakes will make up the difference of the loss and end up with a net loss of $25,200.00. Mr. Phethean explained Finance Officer Nielson recommended the following two ways to break even. The first is to decrease all expenses by 4% and run conservative for the next few months. The second is to increase revenues and the areas of concern are: a.) Teton Lakes Daily Play, b.) Cart revenues – are at the lowest projected revenue in the last five years. Discussion regarding doing price comparing with other nearby golf courses. Mr. McFarland explained this area is very price sensitive because of growing families, the college and other economic factors. Discussion regarding running promotions and adequate signage to get people to come out to the golf. Council Member Mann mentioned it’s a benefit to have the golf course near a location where thousands of vehicle drive by every day. Most golf courses don’t have this benefit. There should be adequate advertising that draws people to the golf course. 3 City or County Input: A. Discussion on Bench Advertising/Replacement – Noah Phethean Mr. Phethean said there has been discussion with Mr. McFarland regarding the two golf courses benches. The benches are very weathered and need to be replaced. He contacted a vendor to obtain quotes of different material that withstand the natural elements for the benches. There are five benches at Legacy and 12 at Teton Lakes. After, speaking with Finance Office Nielson about the benches; it was suggested instead of having adverting for other businesses on the benches to advertise the golf course itself. County Commissioner Smith asked how long the businesses would be able to advertise on the bench. Mr. Phethean replied the business would be able to advertise on the bench for five year. Chairman Watson asked if all of the benches would be uniform. Mr. Phethean said he believes the benches should be uniform in size and material used to construct them. Currently, the benches are all different sizes making it hard to salvage any of the material. Mr. Phethean reviewed the cost for a business to have their advertisement on a bench. Council Member Mann said the cost of $420.00 for a five year advertisement and the cost of the bench is very inexpensive. Mr. Phethean asked the members of the Golf Board if they would be in favor of the benches and their use for advertising. All of the Golf Board Members were in favor of the benches. Council Member Mann suggested the benches all be uniform and to make sure the advertisement isn’t in poor taste. The Board Members asked Mr. Phethean to continue working on the price quotes for the benches. Mr. Phethean asked Seth McFarland for his expertise on the type of material to use for the benches that would last long and do well in the natural elements. Discussion regarding the size and color of the benches. Mr. Phethean reviewed the golf course clubhouse hours including: the percentage used, the contract allowed hours, the balance of the contract hours and the number of hours remaining. 4 B. Discussion on Tournament Report and Reconciliations Mr. Phethean explained a golf tournament report will be implemented to keep track of the revenues, expenses and profit/loss. Chairman Watson said he has the cost associated with Madison Memorial Golf Tournament for the last five years. He asked if the city would be interested in that information. Mr. Phethean replied yes the city is interested in reviewing the cost of the tournament. Chairman Watson explained Redd’s Grill at the Teton Lakes affects the tournaments revenues because they have to use them if the tournament provides a meal. Discussion regarding ideas to make it more cost effective for the tournaments such as; working with Redd’s Grill to possible lowering the cost of the meal or lowing the cost of the green fees. C. Top Soil Project for Winter Recreation – “Sled Hill” City Employee Daniel Torres explained the city received a grant for health living. The city conducted a Parks and Trails Study with the funds received from the grant. In the study they found a need to create winter recreational opportunities for the community. Currently, there is a group that grooms the golf course during the winter months for cross country skiing; however, the grant oversight committee felt more winter recreational options are needed. City Employee Torres said the committee had the idea of creating a sled hill at Teton Lakes Golf Course. A map of the location, size of berm, slope grade and how far it will extend was reviewed. There are grant funds still available to purchase the top soil needed to create the sled hill. In the processes of looking to purchase the dirt needed the Madison School District offered to give the city about 260 cubic yards of dirt at no cost as long as the city hauls the dirt away. 5 Their intentions are to not have to disrupt the golf course landscape. They will figure out a way to build the hill without seeing a dramatic changing to the landscape. The board questioned if the city plans to place sod or seed the slope they will create. Discussion regarding disturbing the native grass that grows at the golf course with the addition of the berm that will be used as a sled hill. There was also concern with being able to maintain the berm. The lawn mower many not be conducive to cutting grass at a certain degree of the slope. The Board questioned the location of where the berm would be raised for the sled hill. They asked if there was a better location for the berm that didn’t block the view of the golf course from the parking lot. City Employee Torres said at this time he is seeking the board’s approval to move the donated dirt to the golf course. They can discuss a different location for the sled hill at a later meeting. The Board approved for the dirt to be hauled to the golf course. D. Continue with Idaho Direct Golf Pro McFarland said the golf course uses Idaho Direct for advertising and for coupons. They have a two for one coupon and other coupons. Golf Pro McFarland said they have used other discount card companies and they weren’t as profitable as the coupons offered in Idaho Direct. Discussion regarding the information needed for the golf tournaments at the golf course. Golf Pro McFarland said he would make a list of all of the tournaments at the golf course and all of the fees collected from each golf tournament. After, he gathers the information from the tournaments he will discuss that information with the board and the city’s finance department. The McDonald’s tournament is full they have started a waiting list. They discussed some of the other golf tournaments that scheduled. Eva Wright mentioned some of the issues with the scheduling of the tee times. She asked that the tee times be coordinated better in between groups to decrease the wait time. Discussion of Legacy Future Options for use/irrigation: Seth McFarland explained building the pump for the irrigation system at the Legacy Golf Course is not the end of the work needing to be completed, it is just the beginning. The entire irrigation system at the Legacy Golf Course needs to be replaced or rebuilt. 6 Mike Farnworth asked the board what they thought about changing the Legacy Golf Course to a six hole golf course to be more adequate for the youth that use the course. If changed to a six hole golf course there could have a par 6, par 5 or a par 4. Discussion regarding the holes made on the greens at Legacy by the pyrotech used during the airshow. The holes were filled in after the city received a complaint. Golf Pro’s Update of Issues/Concerns/Problems/Projects: Mr. McFarland said he would like to do some advertising in August to get more people to come out to golf course. Golf Grounds Manager update of Issues/Concerns/Problems/Projects: A. Update of Fiscal Year 2018 Capital B. Bridge Mr. Watson reported the bridge is being built. They will have to wait until the water in the canal recedes before they can install the bridge. Eva Wright asked if the new bridge is still going to installed 20 feet to the south from where the current bridge is now. Seth said because of the railing on the new bridge they are going to install it further south. C. Handicap Ramp – John Watson Mr. Watson said in order for the Teton Lakes Club House to be ADA compliant a handicap ramp needs to be installed. He said after speaking with City Attorney Zollinger about the handicap ramp. Mr. Zollinger mentioned to him that the building of the ramp would be turned over to an Eagle Scout project. There has been discussion with moving the electrical lift at the tabernacle to the club house. Discussion regarding having men that are retired build the benches for the golf courses. The building of the benches isn’t the issue it’s the cost to build the benches. D. Other Items Discussion regarding the exposed wires near the club house. Mr. McFarland said the conduit is broken causing the wires to be exposed. The broken conduit will replaced to correct the issue. There are issues with some of the rakes at the golf course. Eva Wright said her glove was ripped while using one of the rakes. Board Business/Issues/Problems/Events: Next Board Meeting on August 7th at 4:30 P.M. Executive Session (State Statute 74-206) – Only held if necessary, and subsection authorizing the executive session must be stated – Generally held after regular meeting to discuss labor contract matters. (Only if necessary) (j) To consider labor contract matters authorized under section 67-2345A (74-206A) (1) (a) and (b), Idaho Code. Adjourned at 6:00 P.M.