NORWALK, Conn. – From the nine-hole question to the 10-ish percent of Norwalkers who golf, numbers were in the air Thursday night at the Oak Hills Park Authority meeting.
Acting OHPA chairman Clyde Mount took a little time to refute a Paul Cantor email (see separate letter) suggesting that the smartest thing to do would be take Oak Hills from a standard 18-hole course to a nine-hole course, and golfers Gene Scarangella asked just how many people use baseball fields in Norwalk. Oak Hills Executive Director Shelley Guyer said that rounds were down in December but revenue stayed even, thanks to a Christmas-oriented promotion.
Scarangella said it was true that “golf does not benefit every Norwalk citizen.”
But, “Neither do public schools,” he said. “Why don’t we get rid of them? … A dog park? Who does that serve? One percent of the population?”
If 10 percent of the population plays golf, how many play baseball, he asked.
“About 3.2 percent? Yet we have baseball fields all over the town, maintained by the city,” he said.
OHPA member Ernie Desrochers said that 11.8 percent of Norwalk citizens play golf.
Guyer said that Oak Hills’ 144 acres is about 11 percent of the total park land within the city of Norwalk. “Seems to line up with the golfers,” he said.
called herself an “elitist golfer,” as did an earlier speaker.
Sylvia Scarangella, Scarangella’s wife, said, “I don’t drive a Mercedes. (The course is) for everyone. There are people there from all walks of life.”
“If (the proposed driving range is) going to be around the sixth (hole) don’t bother. It’s going to be a detriment. People aren’t going to use it,” she said.
Two out-of-town women were talking to the golf pro recently and were lamenting the lack of a locker room at the course, she said.
“Our course is one of the most beautiful ones around,” she said. “They have done a beautiful job. … Do we have a facility that the poorest courses in the area have? No.”
The couple have lived here for 43 years, she said. It was a golf course when they arrived and it should stay a golf course, she said.
“It was called a park because we needed the federal funding,” she said. “It was always a golf course. Let’s maintain it as that.”
Cantor’s lengthy email, printed as an opinion piece here, was sent to all Common Council members and had clearly made its way to OHPA members.
“Reducing the 18-hole course in Oak Hills to nine holes is in the interest of the majority of taxpayers of Norwalk including most golfers,” Cantor wrote. “It is in the interest of golfers because a nine-hole golf course is more likely to be financially sustainable. And it is in the interest of all taxpayers because it would free up land for many other uses appropriate to a public park.”
Mount said that only 11 percent of the rounds played at Oak Hills are from people choosing only to play nine holes. Guyer said they do it first thing in the morning and after 4 p.m.
“You’re not going to make half the revenue,” Guyer said.
“Turning away the 89 percent of the golfers that play the 18 rounds wouldn’t be the smart thing that anybody on this authority could ever think about,” Mount said.
Guyer delivered a financial report.
December’s rounds were down 43 percent as compared to last year, when there was good weather, he said. But December deal (five rounds for the price of four) brought in about $6,000, meaning the actual dollars brought in was about even with last year, he said.
For Fiscal Year 14, from July to December, revenue rounds were up 10.6 percent, he said. Golf revenue is up 14.1 percent. Non-resident rounds are up 23 percent up. Nine-hole rounds are up 40 percent. Junior rounds are up 13 percent.
“Residential adult rounds, which have been down most of the year, are only down 3 percent,” Guyer said. “So we’ve been catching up. So I’m pretty confident over the next six months we can get that number back up compared to the prior year again.”
For the calendar year, January to December, total revenue rounds were up 3.6 percent, he said. Rounds of golf were down 3.6 percent state wide, Guyer said.
“In fact on a national basis, municipal golf courses in general were down 3.6 percent, all over the country” Guyer said. “That’s from the National Golf Foundation numbers. We were actually about 7 percent better than anybody else. Taking the minus 3.6 plus the 3.6 we were up.”
There were more than 34,000 rounds played at the course last year, the first time in three years it’s gotten that high, he said.
There are 25 golf events scheduled, he said. Of those, about 60 percent of the groups go to the restaurant, he said.
As of the end of December, OHPA had just under $127,000 in bank, he said. But the “ag and chemical inventory is $100,000 lower than it was a year ago.”
It was explained that a large amount of chemicals were delivered in December 2012 but not recorded as a liability until February.
“It looks out of whack, it’s really not,” Guyer said.
Superintendent Jim Schell has been using chemicals that were on hand and not replacing them, he said. Schell is using fewer chemicals and the actual cost should be $45,000 less this year than it was last year, Guyer said.
“My understanding of how it works is we don’t actually charge ourselves on the P&L until we actually use the chemicals,” Guyer said. “So when we purchase them there’s an expense but it’s offset because we put it into inventory. So basically it’s kind of a flat transaction.”
Things are looking up, he said.
“Our revenue is way up, our expenses are under control,” he said. “The forecast for the next six months is promising.”
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