Lakeside Municipal Golf Course has lost money for a third year in a row.
Lori Branderhorst, director of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Forestry, reported to the Webster County Board of Supervisors Tuesday that a yearly stand-alone audit revealed that the city golf course failed to make a profit in 2010.
The city has a 99-year lease from the county for the land.
"We have a contract with the county that says if we make a profit in general operation funds that we owe so much percent of the profit to the county," she said. "If we don't show a profit, it's a dollar."
She added, "We have not made money again this year, so the county will not be getting any benefit of any revenues."
Branderhorst said the golf course also lost money through the two years prior.
"It's lost money, it's made money. But we've been in a continual money loss for a third year," she said. "We basically started losing money when we took on the debt of building the new club house and buying the new golf cart fleet.
Lakeside has an $80,000 yearly debt service, including $60,000 for the clubhouse and $20,000 for the carts. The golf carts are expected to be paid off in 2015, and the clubhouse in 2018, Branderhorst said.
The golf course has an agreement with the county to have an audit done every year, Branderhorst said.
"The city itself does an audit," she said. "It's in our agreement with the county that we do a stand alone audit for Lakeside. That is just part of our standard agreement."
County Supervisor Clark Fletcher suggested Tuesday that Lakeside should "move toward profitability."
"They feel we have a lot of traffic that our golf course brings to their park," Branderhorst said. "They'd like to be able to have some money come back to their coffers to help keep the park up."
The county pays for repairs to the road leading to the golf course entrance, Branderhorst said.
"In the past, every time that road was done, the city did contribute a portion of whatever the cost is for reasphalting the road," she said. "It hasn't happened in my tenure, but it was basically to the entrance of the golf course that we always helped paved a part of that, due to our customers' use of that road. And we would continue to do so."
Nationwide, golf course revenue has gone down over the last five years, Branderhorst said. The reason, she said, is that golf is a sport that is dependent on people's discretionary recreation dollars.
"It's not a sport activity that people can plop five dollars down and go do," she said. "It's a little more costly. The golf revenues coming in has directly taken a hit with the recession and with our economy. The discretionary dollars aren't there anymore."
Branderhorst said she's proud of Lakeside Municipal Golf Course, though.
"It's a great golf course," she said. "We have a very high standard of what we maintain our golf course at. And our fees are very affordable for the golfers in our community. We really try to balance top-notch golf course with affordable prices. We want to be a community golf course.
Contact Brandon L. Summers at (515) 573-2141 or bsummers@messengernews.net