City looks to close Enke golf property

The city manager's office is recommending soliciting bids from outside private management companies to see if any have a better idea how to revive the moribund golf program, which has run up a $7.5 million deficit since 2004.

But the recommendation includes a request to immediately begin the process of shutting down Fred Enke and turning it into a "natural passive park."

And the west-side El Rio Golf Course isn't far behind. The manager's office wants to start drafting a plan to scale it back into some combination of a park and a golf course. El Rio can't be totally shut down because the city has about six years remaining on a contract with the First Tee youth golf program.

Further, the recommendation calls for selling off any other marketable parcels of excess golf property, such as a 3.5-acre parcel at Silverbell Golf Course, and transferring land set aside for a golf course at Civano on South Houghton Road from the golf program to the city general fund, where it can eventually be sold to pay off golf's $3.6 million in Certifications of Participation sold to build golf facilities.

Since the Enke course, on East Irvington Road on the southeast side, received a federal grant when it opened in 1983, the city has to get permission from the National Park Service before closing it, which takes a minimum of six months. The course would remain open during that time. And even after it closed, the city would still run the driving and practice facility.

Even though the city will start shutting down Fred Enke with council approval Tuesday, Finance Director Kelly Gottschalk said the city's first priority is to keep the courses open and running profitably.

"We owe it to ourself to see, if these courses can work it out," Gottschalk said.

But after years of dwindling rounds and rising deficits, the city has to be realistic about golf's chances of turning it around and have alternate plans in place if things fall through.

"We are just going down two separate paths and see at the end which one makes the most sense," Gottschalk said.

She said the problem isn't so much the yearly deficits at Enke, but the almost $1 million of improvements the course requires.

Problems in the city's golf operations arose around 2005 when Tucson began making millions of dollars in improvements to its courses. The face-lift coincided with the recession and a nationwide drop in interest in the sport.

"Timing was a killer on a lot of this," Gottschalk said.

For years, golf staff told the council all they needed was time to turn things around. But an independent-audit committee report showed a structural deficit in golf that required more than time to correct.

That's when Councilwoman Regina Romero began pushing to fix the problem.

"For far too many years, the greens committee and the golf administrators were hoping and praying the situation would resolve itself," Romero said. "But hoping and praying and not doing anything to change the financial picture of golf is not going to work anymore."

Romero said with impending streetcar expenses and payments to police and fire pensions set to spike in 2015, it's time for the city to get a plan in place before its too late.

She said golf was a good place to start.

She said 2015 is "looming in the future and we have to make sure our house is in order financially. We are are going to pay out millions for those retirements. We have to be fiscally responsible and that's what we have been asking for since May, when I introduced this to the rest of my colleagues."

Romero said she is pleased with the city staff's proposals to get golf out of the red and added she will continue to follow the process closely.

Councilman Paul Cunningham said he believes that Fred Enke should be given some more time to prove it can support itself.

"I think it's important we give Fred Enke the opportunity to pay its own way," Cunningham said. "If it does, it should be left open."

"For far too many years, the greens committee and the golf administrators were hoping and praying the situation would resolve itself. But hoping and praying and not doing anything to change the financial picture of golf is not going to work anymore."

Councilwoman Regina Romero

Contact reporter Darren DaRonco at ddaronco@azstarnet.com or 573-4243.