By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
The golf course in the center of Bowling Green has long been a source of community pride and more recently a source of complaints of privileged use of public property.
The city’s lease of the 60 acres to Bowling Green Country Club expires in 2025. The terms of the lease allow the city to terminate the lease anytime after 2015, with two year’s prior notice required.
City officials recently received a detailed letter on the golf course lease, suggesting that the city view its options before the 2025 deadline. The request came from Bowling Green citizen Lynn Ackerson, who previously asked questions about the site at a park and recreation board meeting.
“Raising the topic of the BG Country Club lease of 80 percent of City Park sometimes causes voices to raise and strong emotions to emerge,” Ackerson wrote to city officials. The nine-hole country club course is one of three golf courses in the city.
“The BG Country Club Golf Course is apparently an important part of BG’s history,” she continued. “The semi-private BG Country Club is also perhaps one of BG’s best kept secrets and frankly a mystery to those that are newly aware of this gem and its relationship to our wonderful network of parks.”
Bowling Green Mayor Dick Edwards responded with a history of the site, explaining that City Park was the original Wood County Fairgrounds.
“The current arrangement indeed goes back that far,” Edwards wrote.
The Wood County Agricultural Society sold the land to the city in 1928, with some records indicating that the lease arrangement predates the sale, the mayor said. The country club owns the roughly 1.5 acres where the pro shop and restaurant sit on the north end of the golf course.
“This nearly 100-year private-public partnership has worked well for Bowling Green residents,” Edwards wrote. “They have benefited from a golf course for recreational purposes at reasonable rates without city dollars being used for the maintenance and upkeep associated with the property.”
In the current lease, signed by the city and country club officials in 2001, the country club agrees to pay $3,000 a year to the city, and to cooperate with Bowling Green Parks and Recreation Department in making the golf course available at no charge for instruction of people in parks and rec programs. The general public is allowed to play on the course for a relatively low cost.
But Ackerson questioned the current contract, which she said benefits the country club far more than the city. “There is a clear opportunity for the BG parks department to leverage the lease to create programming and a fundraising opportunity,” she stated.
With the lease nearing an end, Ackerson suggested that the city consider other options, such as:
- Bowling Green parks department assuming management responsibility for the 60 acres of City Park currently privately maintained.
- Explaining the value added to the entire community of continuing to lease 60 acres of public land to a private entity, and how the terms of a new lease can be made more favorable to the whole community.
Edwards compared the arrangement with the country club as similar to the agreement with the Wood County Senior Center. The city owns the building and the land, but the city does not operate the center. The mayor also addressed questions about taxes assessed on the acreage, saying the city pays property taxes on all of its property which create a source of revenue.
“It has been the long-standing belief of the city, and I concur, that the value added to the residents of Bowling Green by having the Bowling Green Country Club far exceeds the amount we pay in taxes for the site,” the mayor said.
Golfers get in cart at country club course.
The lease does not address the matter, but previously the country club had paid all the property taxes. At some point the payment was split between the country club and the city. And more recently, when asked by the country club for assistance, the city assumed all of the property taxes – which come to about $7,000 a year.
The early termination clause of the lease agreement does give the city a way out of the lease prior to its end date of Dec. 31, 2025. However, if the city terminates the lease early, the city is responsible for all outstanding debt that exists at the time of the notice to terminate.
“The city does not know what outstanding debt there may be because the city is not interested in terminating the lease early at this time,” Edwards wrote.
City officials have long understood, the mayor said, that in order to best serve residents, partnerships are needed with other entities to make Bowling Green a good place to live, work and play. Such partnerships exist with the Senior Center, Pee Wee baseball, and soccer.
“The city could not provide the level of service that these private organizations do, which our residents certainly benefit from and have communicated are important to them,” Edwards stated.
The mayor said the city will not stray from the lease through the five-year plan recently approved by the Bowling Green Parks and Recreation Board. The next five-year master plan, which will cover 2022 to 2027, may include departure from the lease as a topic for consideration.
But Ackerson said a “community conversation” on the use of the public land should start now, rather than waiting for the end of the lease to near.
“The city of BG’s options will begin to shrink as the lease reaches its expiration date,” she said. “I encourage you to be proactive and not end up backed into a corner on this important decision.”
The golf course recently came up during city discussions on a possible bike lane on Fairview Avenue. Residents on the east side of Fairview Avenue were not pleased at the possibility of having portions of their front lawns taken up for a bike lane. So it was suggested that the city consider installing the bike lane on the west side of Fairview on property already owned by the city along the edge of the golf course.
However, city officials decided a bike lane on the edge of the course would pose too much risk for bicyclists from errant golf balls. Residents on the east side of the street reported that their yards, cars, homes and even themselves are frequent victims of stray golf balls.
