Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Chipping away at Countryside
From the RoundTable blog
Read the latest entries
Valerie Garner
Garner is chairwoman of Countryside Neighborhood Alliance.
The neglect must stop. It is time for Roanoke to pony up some dollars to support the public golf course purchased with our tax dollars. This golf course is used by Roanoke citizens who are not members of a private country club.
Yes, Roanoke did add golf course maintenance language to the operating agreement when it was renewed last year. However, this agreement with Meadowbrook management does not include the life-blood of any golf course -- an irrigation system that subsidizes normal rainfall during drought conditions.
A letter dated Jan. 16 from the vice president of operations at Meadowbrook to the Roanoke City Economic Development Office identified urgent repairs needed for the continued successful operation of the golf course.
No. 1 is repair of the golf course irrigation system. Without water the golf course will die. In this letter the cost was estimated at $100,000. Let me point out that the water comes from a pond on the property and not from city water.
No. 2 is repair of the golf cart paths, which are becoming a safety hazard for golfers to negotiate during play. The cost for this would depend on the most needy path replacement coming first with other paths over time.
These items are not the responsibility of Meadowbrook, according to the operating agreement as confirmed by economic development officials. It is the city's responsibility to make these urgent repairs.
The $100,000 for irrigation system repairs is chump change compared to the $800,000 the city is determined to give a private developer for apartments downtown. What does it say of a city when you compare these two? Connections? Location?
Roanoke failed in uncovering these deficiencies prior to purchasing the golf course. This lack of due diligence is troubling. However, gambling with taxpayer dollars in the real estate market should be even more troubling to every overtaxed Roanoke citizen. The amount of interest already paid on the golf course mortgage would make taxpayers' jaws drop.
Let's face it: All members of city council are hard pressed to turn their heads northward when the interests are southward. Another locality admitted to wishing they had such an obvious opportunity so close to an airport, mall and hotels. They would make a showplace out of it. They would make it an attraction for enticing business to the enterprise zone where the old Johnson and Johnson building still sits vacant.
The golf course makes a profit, and don't let anyone in city administration tell you different. Do you really think the operator of the golf course is operating it out of the goodness of its heart?
The city purchased Countryside Golf Club, a public golf course, in November 2005 for mixed-use development without a thought about the people who live here. When confronted, no council member even knew we were here. When a May 3, 2005, Roanoke Times article announced that the city had taken an option to purchase the golf course we were shocked. We had no warning. Many had just moved into their homes.
This community's rights to the enjoyment of its property have been violated ever since that day. The community has suffered through two developers and one horrific year culminating in the most repulsive plan imaginable.
Our pleas for the city to commit to a municipal golf course operated by parks and recreation were ignored and excluded from the just-completed Parks and Recreation Master Plan. We attended every workshop. We falsely hoped we might get one of those new-fangled multigenerational recreation centers where the defunct pool now stagnates. However, the Parks and Recreation Master Plan was adopted by city council with a commitment of $75 million over 10 years and only $3.3 million to Northwest City -- 4.4 percent. And we get to share with Roanoke County its planned recreational complex. Now isn't that a pie in the face -- "Thank you very much for attending all the parks and recreation workshops and here's your consolation prize: You can't even keep what you have."
And by the way, at 7 p.m. today, city council will consider slicing off an acre of the golf course (though deceptively described on the agenda as vacant city-owned land) to Newbern, LLC. To that I say "Thank you, Roanoke city, may I have another?"
On the net: savecountryside.blogspot.com/
