Eagle Bend Golf Course was supposed to pay its own way in 2003. Instead the city-run course dipped into the taxpayer till to stay afloat.

Officials disclosed Tuesday the course needed a $150,000 infusion of tax money late in the year to remain open — the second time in its six-year life it has received such support.

“If we didn’t have that, we couldn’t have paid expenses,” City Manager Mike Wildgen said. “We couldn’t have paid people.”

The Journal-World reported in May that Eagle Bend was failing to meet financial expectations. Officials said then the course would remain self-sufficient by laying off part-time employees and delaying other expenditures.

“We’re operating it based on the revenues that we’re generating,” Jim Kane, Eagle Bend ‘s manager, said at the time. “So we’re operating it the way that it should be.”

But the number of rounds played at Eagle Bend declined precipitously during 2003, from 37,328 in 2002 to 32,694. That meant a sharp drop in revenue during the same time: from about $980,000 to $895,000.

That, in turn, forced city officials to use taxpayer money to support what was originally intended to be a self-sufficient operation.

“The goal, clearly, is for (Eagle Bend) to operate on its own,” Wildgen said. “But we have a lot of facilities — pools, parks — that don’t stand on their own.”

Reasons, expectations

Poor weather and a poor economy were blamed for the 18-hole course’s declining revenues, and officials promised new efforts to woo golfers in 2004.

They also said it might take several years for the “golf economy” to rebound — nationally, golf courses saw business fall by 10 percent in 2003. And officials said other new courses in northeast Kansas have taken the luster off Eagle Bend.

6News video: Eagle Bend subsidies drawing attention City golf course short on revenue (11-21-03) 6News video: City golf course having bad year (11-21-03)

“Our charge is to bolster that,” Parks and Recreation director Fred DeVictor said. “We’re at the mercy of the weather, like swimming pools … but we need to increase play out there.”

When the project was sold to commissioners in the late 1990s, consultants said the course would “pay for itself.” According to projections from Municipal Golf Inc., the Omaha company hired by the city to build the course, Eagle Bend was to be open for a full season in 1998 and break even by year’s end.

Instead, the city pumped $158,000 in sales tax money into the course in 1999.

Wildgen said Tuesday that expectations when the course opened in July 1998 were that the course eventually would play host to 44,000 rounds of golf a year.

Municipal Golf Inc. also said the city could consider using Eagle Bend profits to pay all or portions of the course’s water bills. As it stands right now, the course pays nothing for the water it uses for irrigation. The city also does not pay property taxes on the course, which is on land leased from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for $1.

Not long-term?

City officials didn’t seem overly concerned by Eagle Bend’s shortfall. They had hinted in November that tax support might be required to keep the course open.

The $150,000, officials said, came from sales taxes that are designated for use by the Parks and Recreation Department.

“We’re subsidizing some of our athletics facilities to a greater extent than we would like,” Mayor David Dunfield said. “But that revenue source is there, and those are the kinds of facilities it’s to be used for.”

Some observers expressed optimism.

“This is not going to be a problem, long-term,” Bill Penny, a member of the city’s Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, said at the board’s meeting Tuesday.

“We think so. We hope so,” DeVictor said. “But we’re going to do more this year to entice the public.”

Those measures will include hosting “watch parties” for major PGA tournaments, increased advertisement in Topeka and Kansas City and a free Saturday morning golf clinic.

Just to be safe, though, officials have already sliced $152,648 from Eagle Bend’s $1.19 million budget for 2004.

“We just need to get folks out there,” DeVictor said. “Hopefully the economy rebounds a little bit. We think we have a good facility.”