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Fore sale?
Salt Lake County Councilman Jeff Allen wants to do just that with South Mountain Golf Club, hoping to squeeze some green out of a scenic hillside course that has spent too many years in the red.
Taxpayers shell out more than $1 million a year to prop up the Draper golf course, bought by the county in 1999 for nearly $16 million.
Those subsidies, Allen argues, not only trap the general fund in the budget bunker, they also delay much-needed maintenance to the county's five other courses.
So would anyone step forward to buy South Mountain? Only one way to find out.
"Let's get some serious bids out there," Allen said Monday.
It's not the first time he has tried to unload the course. He took a swing at it last year -- unsuccessfully.
Allen hopes council sentiments have softened since then, particularly with economic pressures that have led the county to trim more than $20 million from this year's budget -- with more cuts and a possible tax hike looming. Officials even shaved an additional $200,000 from the golf ledger this month, putting off a repaving project at Meadow Brook Golf Course.
Councilman Jim Bradley, who once dismissed selling South Mountain as a "nitwit idea," now says he is open to the prospect.
"I'm not going to be eager to get rid of it," Bradley said. "But I'm not going to pass up a good deal for the county either."
Allen says South Mountain doesn't fit the
"The course was designed for a lower-handicap player with a better skill set," Allen said. "Unfortunately, that level of golf requires that it be maintained at a high level. We just don't have the funds to maintain it."
But is there a buyer in today's economy?
"I don't know," Allen replied. But "right now, we don't even know what our options are."
The Salt Lake County Council will consider selling the South Mountain Golf Club during its regular meeting today at 2:30 p.m. in the County Government Center, 2001 S. State St.
