The Wellington Village Council is contemplating buying the Binks Forest golf course, and there seems to be a lot of considerations that are being ignored.
1. The economy is still slow, less people are playing golf and many, many private and municipal courses are closed or are being closed. (Just look at Royal Palm Beach to our north and Boynton Beach the south.)
2. Binks Forest has failed under three separate ownerships already.
3. Should a municipal course compete with the three courses in Wellington already?
4. People say that we have a municipal pool, tennis courts, ball fields and a gym, why not a golf course? The answer to that is simple: 80 to 90 percent of the people who use those facilities are Wellingtonians, and outsiders pay a fee. A municipal golf course would be 80 to 90 percent of outsiders playing here, and we would be subsidizing them.
5. The planned local meetings would not represent all of Wellington, just like the K-Park meetings were representative of the surrounding communities most affected, but leaving out 90 percent of Wellingtonians who would not attend a meeting for a local circumstance.
So, too, would that happen at Binks, just as we (Binks citizens) packed village hall to keep our course years ago, and made a deal to rezone and develop part of the course with townhouses. Now, we are going to revisit it again, whilst I’m sure the monies paid by a developer are long ago spent! How many failures until someone says enough, especially with taxpayer money?
So, $3 million to purchase the course, $750,000 minimum to upgrade it, no property tax income forever, as it leaves the tax rolls under a municipality, and 2 to 3 years operating at a loss is predicted, if not forever.
The next logical question is: what happens if the municipal golf course fails? What is the fallback position?
Are we to have a passive park, and bring people into our back yards and into our gated communities instead?
Will this bring crime, burglaries and drug sales, as police could not easily negotiate the course at night to address these potential issues as larger parks so often have?
Personally, my recommendation would be to have staff (not a paid advisor) look into golf courses in established areas, see how they are doing, how many are closing or switching to nine-hole courses and get some inside information on these courses, what works and what doesn’t.
Then, in November 2016, during the presidential election, when the most people are voting in Wellington, have a well-thought-out referendum on the subject, perhaps even choices.
When there is much more information, the people are educated on the subject, and a better decision can be made on the future of this course!
George Unger, Wellington
The sad part is, there was 22 other people who wanted a free ride to get on council and now only 2 are running.I had to withdraw do to family health matter.What happened to the 20 others to file? These 3 candidate has not put any dues in for Wellington and was appointed politicly to go on comities and are getting a free ride. Now they show up at council meeting and sit in the back just to say they showed up.
We need change and only the voter can do it,But most don’t vote so they deserve what they get. Time to move. Is it going to be different some where else? lol
Unfortunately, Bart, the Council will vote to purchase Binks Golf Course AFTER the election. They’re politicians.
These current Council members are sneaky.
Remember how they handed an exclusive contract for a Horse Park on Kpark land to someone who couldn’t find the funding for the project?
Let’s also remember how they tried to sneak the Kpark development through without input from residents and that blew up in their faces.
And remember how the Council Agreed on a procedure to rank vote a new Council person into office to replace Councilman Coates; and 2 of the 4 (Greene and Willhite) decided not to follow the Agreed procedure and only ranked the same 1 person.
Who can Trust this group given their past actions? They’re politicians and advocates for themselves.
What is irksome is that the Council can’t even fund the needed infrastructure projects in Wellington and yet they want to incur further debt to fund a golf course that has less than 20 members and will cost millions to renovate with on-going debt on the backs of all Wellington residents just to pacify their buddies who live in Binks.
You are assuming 2-3 years out it will make money.Why should it be on the backs of the residence or village to own and keep up? If there was a buyer, it would have sold.They never put the money from the town house’s back into the golf course.
They should have never rezoned for town homes next to our community.It belongs near or next to shopping malls.What happened to that golf course view you paid extra for? Let the people who want it ,buy it.
Again not ,on the taxpayer’s back. And yes you can vote them out if they do buy it.