12-06-1999 WS & TNT - Laserfiche WebLink

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SUNSHINE PRINTING TEL NO .305 451-3752 Dec 02 ,99 16 :51 P .02 Grinder for reels—Hold due to budget 'These projects will be part of the comprehensive plan that is being worked on for the`Big woods' Budget 2000 After doing a down and dirty version of the budget for 2000 I still had a negative cash flow of about $60,000.After another staff meeting where we cut everything for 2000 that would not immediately decrease revenues and increased everything we thought was possible,we came up with a balanced budget.This budget does not take into account depreciation and contributes nothing to any kind of reserves we should have on hand. As you can see we put almost everything that was planned for projects on hold.How long can we put everything on hold before it starts to affect revenues or moves larger costs into the fihture,is an important topic to discuss at our work session. Concourse business expansion: The last four years I have presented opportunities that we could pursue in order to make the golf course have a positive cash flow.These opportunities are still available.Each year they are not acted on costs money for revenue not earned and will cost more to do as construction costs go up. Even though it's not pleasant to hear,I need to repeat the rule of thumb for financing golf courses.To break even you need to charge$10 for every million dollars in costs.Our course cost 3.1 million and we can not charge$31.00 for a round of golf. We also had many unanticipated problems that needed to be fixed. Obviously it was built to run at a deficit. Six projects have been proposed to produce revenues and have positive cash flows.Adding another nine holes,lighting the course for night golf,expanding the practice range and using it year round,adding a pitch and putt short course,mini golf,and putting in food and bar service have been discussed.The other item brought up last spring was billboards.Most of these projects will produce significant positive cash flow immediately. I have used every means possible to offset this deficit.Can you picture what the debt would be if we were doing just as well as the other courses instead of outperforming them almost two to one?One other reminder on costs is that hundreds of thousands of dollars have been saved by doing major projects in-house and not contracting them out.This work was all done outside of the requirements put in my contract. There is three years left under my current agreement and I would like to have the city council give authorization to either modify the existing contract or draw up a new long term one.I feel that I have proven myself a good steward of the golf course and would like a long-term commitment before we start on this next phase of the golf course plan. Summary: The Bridges Golf Course is an incredibly successful operation that every person in Mounds View can be proud of.Some people in the community were told that the golf course would be this huge moneymaker immediately.They also thought that there would be few if any up front costs to develop this course after the construction was over.For some reason instead of trying to find a way to solve these problems and get behind this operation they have sat on the sidelines running the golf course down.Does this make any sense?The more they run down the golf course,the fewer people will come and we will lose more money. Because of this there has been a reluctance to look at this operation from a business view rather than a political view. What do other cities do? Several just subsidize the operation each year with the idea that a golf course like a park,a hockey arena,or a community center adds value to the community.Some manage to pay for the