More News

The Montgomery County Council is facing an unpleasant task in deciding what to do with the Sligo Creek Golf Course, which its operator wants to close because the course is losing money — despite having a loyal following.

The nine-hole golf course, on which players teed up for 30,000 rounds in fiscal 2008, is in the red due to lagging interest, aging infrastructure and what some supporters of preserving the course refer to as exorbitant management fees. The National Golf Foundation recently projected a $202,000 loss at Sligo Creek for fiscal 2009, which ended June 30.

This isn't news — a couple of years ago, the Montgomery County Revenue Authority, which operates the course, determined that Sligo Creek wasn't profitable and proposed building a driving range and mini-golf course to increase revenues.

That effort was stymied by nearby residents who were concerned about the lights from the range, noise and traffic. Council member Valerie Ervin, who represents the district in which the golf course is situated, says the problem was that the revenue authority didn't offer options to the neighbors — it was a driving range or nothing. Keith Miller, executive director of the revenue authority, has a different take — he says the authority spent months working with residents, but to no avail.

And so it goes. Now, two years later, the council must decide whether it wants to pony up $150,000 to subsidize the golf course for awhile, until some sort of arrangement can be worked out. One proposal from Ervin has the course partnering with the Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs to provide therapeutic golf for wounded service members.

That may be a workable solution, although it will take some tricky legal maneuvering to renegotiate the lease with the revenue authority, and it's worth a modest amount to keep a valuable community amenity open while the county fully explores its options. That being said, any decision to subsidize Sligo Creek must be attached to a well-defined plan with clear timelines.

It's unfortunate that elected leaders didn't have the foresight to address this situation years ago as the county now has to dip into its coffers at a time when there's not much to scrape. At one point a couple of years ago, County Executive Ike Leggett directed the revenue authority to return to negotiations with Sligo Creek's neighbors. That decision, while politically diplomatic, may have doomed the course — with the residents and the revenue authority so far apart on what should be done, the authority saw no other way to remove itself from a burdensome situation than to return the course to the county.

This now places the decision back on the politicians, who will have to weigh any potential backlash for funding a golf course while the county considers furloughs, with closing a course that has been popular with senior citizens, entry-level golfers and residents in the southern part of the county.

The situation with Sligo Creek calls into question the very purpose of government. What amenities are acceptable to be paid for with public dollars? Why is it OK for the county to wholly pay for softball fields, for instance, while a golf course is not as palatable?

Answers vary. Council member Mike Knapp points out that golf requires pricey equipment, unlike other sports. Council President Phil Andrews noted the high cost of maintaining golf courses and suggested that other sports offer more bang for the buck in terms of aerobic efficiency.

The revenue authority, a quasi-governmental arm of Montgomery County whose mission is to operate public-use facilities, such as Sligo Creek and the Montgomery County Airpark, may have been created to avoid difficult questions like these; to, as is often said, "run government like a business." As an independent agency not subsidized by government dollars, it is able to offer services that may be too difficult for politicians to justify using public funds.

County leaders will make up their mind about Sligo Creek within a few weeks, but a broader discussion of the role of government could help avoid similar scenarios in the long term.