A spark that ignited enthusiastic plans to expand Richfield's golf course has been extinguished by the outcome of a vote recount, as four absentee ballots decided the issue on Monday.

It is possible that the issue will come to life again at some point in the future, according to Mayor Paul Lyman, but following Monday's recount, the $2 million general obligation bond proposal to finance the project went down to defeat, 795-791."What I feel the people rejected is how we were going to fund the program," Lyman said Tuesday. "I'm not a golfer but I want Richfield to be a nice place to live and I think we need an 18-hole course.

"When the new City Council meets in January I think we should sit down and decide what we can do. They (residents) don't want to fund it with a general obligation bond so we need to respond to that. We need to figure out some way to put the thing together that will be acceptable. But for now we have no other plans."

The initial Nov. 7 vote count had defeated the issue by three votes, but four absentee ballots had not arrived. When they were opened, three supported the bond and one opposed it, leaving the 790-790 tie.

City officials commissioned a feasibility study on expanding the golf course. It was concluded that an expanded course would not only break even, but that it would turn a profit in the future. Had voters approved the expansion, the course would be the only city-owned facility projected to make a profit.

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The Council and mayor had planned to issue bonds in 1997 when bonding will be amortized for a swimming pool. That would have avoided raising taxes to finance the golf course project. Swimming pools bonds cost the average homeowner here about $2 a month.

"I guess people were voting for a tax decrease," the mayor lamented. "Apparently there were those who said `why should I pay when I don't golf.' "

The mayor still had a sense of humor even though the bonding was defeated. "When we had a tie vote with about 1,600 voters, that was historic," he said. "It is no longer historic and for now it is dead."

Richfield is the only city of its size in the state that doesn't have an 18-hole golf course.

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