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Editorial: Potential for golf course success
Op-Ed · October 13, 2016
Right now, the golf course remains in limbo. We hope someone will step forward to preserve it.
The property owners of what is now known as Cedars Edge Golf Course, mother-son team Pamella and Rick Miller, appear open to selling the property once again. However, they no longer want to manage the business.
Jerry and Tammy Sexton are currently running the golf course, but that is expected to come to an end sometime this month. The two parties are wrapping up their contract, and the golf course will again be empty, as it was for about two months this past spring.
Some have suggested the City of West Branch purchase the course. Does it have the financial capacity to do so? Not really. Not without passing a bond referendum. And even so, the city would then have to maintain the property, which would be difficult with all of the other sewer, water, streets, sidewalks and park improvements laid out over the next few years.
Perhaps a consortium of private individuals could pool their resources to purchase the property. No doubt local golfers have thought of this.
The possibility of losing the golf course is quite troubling. Whether it becomes farmland or residential or even commercial, we think Jerry Sexton is correct that it is unlikely a golf course will return to West Branch for a long time.
We believe the Millers are aware that losing the golf course could mean a drop in nearby property values, and make West Branch less attractive to new families. Yet we also understand the financial drain of paying property taxes on 80 acres of land that is not producing any revenue. Leasing it out as farmland is certainly a temptation.
It was quite encouraging, though, to see how many people came out to help restore the golf course when the Sextons acquired the company, if not the property. The dozens of people who brought tools and know-how and volunteered their time — it made the property close to viable, Jerry Sexton said. The only thing he needed to make ends meet was to sell off a few acres for housing.
He was negotiating with the city to upgrade Cedar-Johnson Road, and the deal was close to happening before the Sexton-Miller contract broke off.
So the potential for running a successful golf course in West Branch is high.
Yet whomever is considering buying the property, if anyone, would need to do so soon.
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