A plan for the city of Cleveland to lease out the Waterville golf course has not worked out as the lease is in default and the city is now owed $20,000, Cleveland City Council members were told Tuesday.
The council voted to officially terminate the contract with the current management company. This will allow the city to reimburse current members who have paid dues but have been unable to play on the course.
Options discussed were to either sell or again lease the course. Selling it is not an option because a spring on the property that is an important water source would require that there be too many restrictions.
The council decided to hire another company to run the golf course. Presently, there are three interested parties. They will be provided with financial information and be given the chance to see the course and submit a proposal by Friday at noon. A vote to choose the company to oversee the golf course will take place at a special meeting next Monday at noon.
Lease proposals will be accepted at the Municipal Building until noon on Friday. Council members and city staff will have the opportunity to review the proposals over the weekend before making a decision at the adjourned meeting. The council intends to lease the golf course for an initial term of five years with the option for an additional five years. Should the council decide to sell the golf course in the future, the lessee would have the first refusal to purchase.
The motion passed by a vote of 5-2 with Councilmen Richard Banks and Bill Estes casting votes against the motion.
On Jan. 26, the Council unanimously voted to lease the municipal golf course to Rock Morgan, president of Morristown-based GSP Business Alliance LLC, for a period of 10 years, effective March 1. The company was to pay the city $60,000 a year. The agreement included all equipment except the golf carts leased from Yamaha. That agreement with Yamaha expires in August 2015.
After signing the lease, Mr. Morgan stopped communicating with city staff and he was declared in default of the contract.
All members of the Waterville Golf Club who paid fees or dues during the time that it was leased to Rock Morgan will be refunded by the city of Cleveland
The Council has been discussing the future of the course at least since April 2009 when more than 50 people, who were concerned about the future of Waterville Golf Course, packed the City Council Chambers. Those who used the golf course then were concerned the City Council would close the public facility. They said then that Waterville Golf Course was the only place many can afford to play and that it was used by retirees and students in the community.
The following year, the Tennessee Department of Transportation began a massive widening and roadway realignment project on Dalton Pike, which heavily impacted the golf course.
The Tennessee Department of Transportation paid Cleveland $1.42 million for a piece of the golf course that was needed to widen Dalton Pike. The 18-hole course closed April 1, 2010. On July 1, 2010, the nine front holes on the east side of Dalton Pike reopened for play while the back nine holes were rebuilt. The widening of Dalton Pike took the No. 10 and No. 17 greens, which caused the shifting of seven of the nine holes on the back nine. A new, high-tech irrigation system and pumping station was installed, as well as a new maintenance facility on the east side. All 18-holes opened for play in August 2013.
However, the course was hampered by some unforeseen events, the worst being the unusually cold temperatures in January and February 2014 that killed the new Bermuda grass on the greens. Staff planted Bent grass on the greens in the fall of 2014 and the greens were recovering.
After Mr. Morgan leased Waterville, he never picked up the keys to the facility and did not maintain the course. City staff was prevented by law from entering the property to maintain the greens.
In other business, City Manager Janice Casteel said right-of-ways needed by the city for the local interstate connector north have been obtained, but are now going through the appraisal process. After the value is determined, negotiations will take place with the present landowners. There are two that the city will need to assist in finding a relocation site.
The new Cleveland High School gym is under construction with the outside brick going up now. It should be fully under roof by the end of July.
The city has received a grant for $250,000 CDBG Disaster Funding resulting from tornado damage.
A public hearing for the 2016 city budget was held with no comments from the citizens and a vote to adopt it on first reading. There will be no property tax increase with the rate remaining at $1.7655.
Currently residents of Cleveland pay either a $1 or $2 fee to the stormwater utility. The city has hired a consultant so those fees will be extended in order for the program to function.
A presentation was made in recognition and thanks from the Taylor Springs committee to lifelong residents of Cleveland, Jim and Josephine Webb. The city accepted their gift of the Webb Building downtown.
Commissioner George Poe asked for suggestions of what can be done about homeless people in the city. He told of two that have garnered complaints who store possessions in a doorway of a business on Ocoee Street. The police have helped one individual find housing, yet he reappears on the street. The options for police are to take the people to jail or ticket them with a fine. Neither are going to solve the problems, said the police spokesman.