To the editor:
In response to the Kerri Nakamura letter of Sept. 12, we are not only a group of senior citizens. Our committee has more seniors than non-seniors, plus 3,000 signatures on a petition against the mismanagment, misrepresentation and manipulation of all golfers.It is true, Mayor Palmer DePaulis did not con the City Council alone. It was Gust, Gardner and DePaulis. At a Jan. 17 meeting, City Council member Alan Hardman said that when the council voted for two new golf courses, it received information from the Golf Enterprise Fund that as of Jan. 1, fee increases would be 25 percent; 14 percent in 1993, and 11 percent in 1997. He said the council voted on the two new courses based on a 25-percent fee increase, not a 200-percent one.
Nakamura would like us to believe the city is losing money because of what we are paying for golf but omitted $827,000 from the figures. In fact, the golf courses made $1.3 million in the past three years over and above all expenses.
Nakamura says the cost of two golf courses is set at $9,369,325, with $1,344,250 contributed by the Golf Enterprise Fund and the Airport Authority, leaving a cost of about $8 million. The actual figures are $1,240,000 from the Golf Enterprise Fund and $850,000 from the Airport Authority, for a total of more than $2 million. Nakamura also says we added 10 years of interest on the bonds to the upfront costs. But upfront or upback, it still has to be paid.
Not all golf courses are overcrowded, but slow play does create problems. This can be solved by using the Colorado system, where new rules caused play to drop from six hours to four hours and 15 minutes. This system could work for Salt Lake City and could result in gaining an extra 46,000 rounds of golf, plus a gain of $500,000 in revenue.
Nakamura says the city established the golf advisory board to allow public involvement in creating golf policy and that Skokos and his committee should work with the board, letting them know their feelings and viewpoints. One of our members, Jack Malen, attended a GAB meeting, rose to speak and was told to shut up or be ejected.
Lou Skokos
Citizens Golf Committee
Salt Lake City