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The city of Ogden is trying to deal with a golf course $2 million in debt. Some say the situation is being handled incorrectly and could end up costing millions of dollars more.
Ogden City owns two golf courses. One is profitable, making about $50,000 per year, but Mount Ogden Golf Course loses upward of four times that much each year. Everyone agrees that changes need to be made, but they can't come to an agreement about what should be done.
It was a beautiful day on the golf course for Jake Cook, but while he was teeing off, the golf course was losing money: $200,000 to $300,000 per year.
Ogden's Mayor Matthew Godfrey said, "The taxpayers never signed up to carry this burden." According to him, the total debt of the golf course now stands at about $2 million.
A citizens' advisory panel has been meeting for months to form recommendations. They'll meet again Wednesday night. One possibility they'll consider is a complete redesign, which would cost millions of dollars.
"The problem with the golf course is they ran out of money, so they cut corners and they didn't design it correctly, and they didn't build it the way it was designed," Godfrey said.
But Mount Ogden Golf Course regulars point to the Animal Golf Digest magazine survey of best places to play. It gives the golf course a four-star rating.
Golfer Bill Critchlow said, "The promotion's been negative promotion from city hall. It hasn't been getting behind the golf course and getting people out playing."
Some say if the city simply put in a new sprinkling system, built wider fairways and cleared some underbrush, it would be enough to get the notoriously challenging golf course back in the green.
Cook said, "Yeah, it'd be a lot easier if they'd just fix a couple things, you know. It'd make a lot more money too. There [would] be a lot more people here, for sure."
Again, the committee is scheduled to meet on Wednesday.
E-mail: sdallof@ksl.com