Countryside and the Future

Today's Roanoke Times had an article today discussing the future of Countryside Golf Course and the likelihood that it will remain a golf course for at least the next five years. Having read the article (and not having been available yesterday to comment) I do have a few thoughts that I thought I would share.

These thoughts do not reflect anything discussed in City Council's closed meeting as contracts are being negotiatied and it was my understanding we should not discuss ongoing negotiations. So here are a few thoughts:

- I do not believe it is fundamentally fair in a city of 93,500 people, of whom maybe 500 residents actually play the course, to spend so much money for the benefit of relatively so few. So we will have nearly 93,000 city taxpayers paying millions of dollars for a very few to play golf - and we have a disproportionate number of golf courses in the area, many of whom, if not all, are struggling financially.

- We cannot assume that this piece of property would not be bought if put on the open market as is said in the article. Yes, the economy is bad, but to commit to spending millions of dollars to keep it a golf course simply because we think it won't sell is not in the best interest of taxpayers. Never hurts to try selling.

- I do not believe that because this topic has been debated for a few years that we should just put it to rest and start spending millions of dollars.

- I do not believe that we should commit to spending millions of taxpayer dollars simply so this does not become an issue dealt with year after year by City Council. To spend millions so that seven of us do not have "to pay the political price" is wrong. The price we should be concerned about is the overall costs to the taxpayer.

In the end, this course will cost us millions of dollars. Period. A solution would be to cut a large portion of acreage off the course and to turn it into a wonderful park for residents of the city and in particular in northwest Roanoke. This would accomplish the creation of open space and a park, the alleviation of millions of dollars of subsidies and capital expenses that will be put into the course, and better represent the interest of the taxpayers of this city.

We subsidize the Roanoke Civic Center, the Market Building, potentially an amphitheather, a golf course... millions and of dollars worth of operational subsidies a year...