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Show rrmp, " ' .' ' f EMESiCj i i -J h ' H i U i in 1 : 1 : 3i " v-- 2 Golf Course Decision Complicated by Its Part in Cedar Hills Pressurized Irrigation System by Harlow Clark Money Cedar Hills has collected from recreation impact im-pact fees and the Community Arts and Recreation (CARE) tax has to be spent this year. Close to 40 people, including 10 Boy Scouts, came to the April 5 city council meeting, and about 15 spoke during the public comment section. Most of them opposed building build-ing a clubhouseevents center reception center at the golf course. Ken Cromar, first to speak, set out most of the points others repeated. He said using $1,000,000 or more for golf course clubhouse and recreation center takes money away from children's recreation recre-ation funds. He refered to two petitions to either not spend CARE taxrecreation fees on golf course or refund the money. He also said that no matter mat-ter who paid the impact fees, "all Cedar Hills families have been burdened with the loss of over $8 million down the drain with this golf course." Jerry Derringer, from the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Recreation Recre-ation Acquatics Committee, said members were told that if the funds weren't used, most refunds would have to be paid to developers rather than homeowners. ho-meowners. His research said the money can be returned to the current landowner and that according to city code, that an appropriate use would be to apply funds to the debt service on the bond. "Let the golfers build their own clubhouse," Joe Ferguson said. Paul Sorensen also spoke in favor of paying down the debt on golf course, rather than building a clubhouse. He repeated calls from others for a municipal vote on the matter. Bob Eddington said he didn't oppose the golf course. "No matter what form of recreation rec-reation we support by the city, it's all going to be subsidized to some extent," he said. Bob Lyle agreed, saying, "I want to know what in this, city has a profit that the city owns?" He added, "the golf course is a first class facility," and a clubhouse would be a great addition. Diane Kirk said the matter mat-ter had been discussed over and over and quoted City Manager Konrad Hildebrandt from another meeting, "We have paralyzation because of analyzation." Kirk said the golf course was built for four purposes: recreation, water reservoirs, open space for density, all of which it has accomplished, ac-complished, and for additional addition-al revenue for the city, which was not accomplished yet. "We have a golf course," Kirk said. A lot of people don't like it or want it, but we have it, and we need to make the best of it." She agreed with those who didn't think the city should own a business. "If we built the events center, maybe it would be more palatable pal-atable for someone to buy." Acknowledging that it's not easy to spend the money in a way that pleases everyone, every-one, she invited people who think they could do better to run for office in the next election. elec-tion. Selling the golf course is not a simple matter though. "We can't sell it off or we'd sell our irrigation system," Council Member Ken Kirk said after the meeting. He said the water traps and ponds are part of an intricate irrigation irriga-tion system accounting for $1 million of the $8 million Cromar claimed was wasted. For example, pond 10 pumps to pond 12, which pumps to tanks which use gravity to pressurize the system. Similarly Simi-larly pond 17 pumps to pond 18, which also pumps to tanks, he said. |