Fergus Falls, MN – The talk of Monday night’s (July 1st) Fergus Falls City Council Meeting was the Letter of Intent for the Pebble Lake Golf Club (PLGC) to purchase the Pebble Lake Golf Course from the City.
While the official purchase agreement has just been put in the works, the Letter of Intent states the purchase price will be for one dollar.
Some residents have voiced their concerns about not selling the course for enough money, but there’s more at play than just the purchase price.
The PLGC is a nonprofit organization and has managed the golf course since its founding.
The City currently budgets around $44,000 a year toward maintaining the course, but due to bureaucracy and limited funds, the ability to make improvements is little to nothing.
If the PLGC were to own the course itself however, they would be able to more quickly and efficiently work on the much needed updates to the course and it’s clubhouse, which as part of the agreement, they will be required to do.
The Letter of Intent lists 3 specific improvements the PLGC must make within 5 years of the purchase date:
- Update the irrigation system with new updated electrical and control systems, and replacement heads (estimated cost of $200,000).
- Purchase a greens mower and rough mower and other equipment necessary to maintain the golf course (estimated cost of $275,000).
- Remodel the clubhouse and make it useable year-round (estimated cost of $500,000)
The Letter also states the club is also not allowed to sell the course, develop any of the land for any reason other than golf, or make the course private for at least the next 50 years.
It is important to note that because this is a real estate sale, the City has to put a “sunset” on when their requirements ends, but City Administrator Andrew Bremseth has said that based on his discussions with PLGC, he believes they would be open to any amount of time, as they also want the course to remain public.
The City Council emphasized on Monday that their largest reason for selling the golf course to the PLGC specifically is to keep it a public golf course so it would remain accessible to a multitude of financial classes.
On top of that, once the course is sold, the club will have to pay taxes for the property.
In short, the PLGC will be buying the Pebble Lake Golf Course for $1, but they can’t sell or privatize it for at least 50 years, they have to make about $1 million worth of improvements within 5 years, and they have to begin paying property tax for the course.
One argument heard from residents at Monday’s meeting was that there are likely other groups that could be interested in buying the course that the City could get more money from, however the Council argues that those groups would likely want to privatize the course, making it only available to “elite” members.
The other part of the deal where residents had concerns is the amount of money the City would still be giving to the club.
As part of the Letter of Intent, the City would give the PLGC $500,000 over the next 10 years that must be used to support youth recreational programming.
In other words, the City would still be paying $50,000 a year to the course.
While that is more than what is currently being put into the course, the City will also be making money from the property taxes and Bremseth says that once payments end in 10 years, the City will actually be overall saving money.
The Letter of Intent was approved by the City Council on Monday and City staff are tasked with drafting and negotiating a purchase agreement.
Pebble Lake Golf Course is not an issue with any easy answers, and no matter what happens moving forward, it seems there has to be buy-in from all parties involved.