Park Authority details debt and budget woes

For the umpteenth time in a row, it seems, Prince William’s Park Authority has reported big losses with the county’s three golf courses, leading some on the Board of County Supervisors to consider dramatic action.

“This is a dead dog,” said Chairman Corey Stewart, R-at large. “We need to put it out of its misery.”

Translation: If the Park Authority can’t turn a profit with golf courses, it’s time to get out of the golf business.

“We’ll do analysis work” and report on that idea in the coming weeks, said Jay Ellington, executive director for parks, during his quarterly update to supervisors last week.

Prince William is home to 18 golf courses, 11 of which provide access to the public. Of those 11, the Parks Authority operates three — Prince William Golf Course, Forest Greens and General’s Ridge. Not one has ever turned a profit, Ellington said. The smallest reported loss was $25,000; the largest, which came this year, was $1 million.

“They’ve been an average $600,000 in the hole over three years,” he said.

It’s not the operations side of business to blame, Ellington said. Rather, debt service continuously eats into revenues.

“Operations has been on the green side,” Ellington said. “It’s been positive all these years. How much we took in for revenue and how much we spent, we’ve been healthy. But our ability to cover the debt is our problem.”

Just this month, the Park Authority took steps to recoup the losses and eliminated 12 full-time positions and cut operating costs by $150,000. Expected savings are $370,030 — but that’s a far cry from the $1.08 million needed to pay the debt balance on the three courses, Ellington admitted.

“We cannot continue that loss,” he said, “so we’re working on a monthly basis” with Finance Department officials to devise a suitable plan.

To Stewart, however, the only workable plan now is to sell, lease or otherwise rid the burden of financing golf courses from the shoulders of taxpayers.

“The Park Authority ought to consider an exit strategy from golf altogether,” he said. “It’s clearly sapping Park Authority resources … and the Park Authority has failed to operate these courses in a profitable way.”

Better would be to use the space for parks for children, or even development, Stewart suggested. After all, golfers will still have other places to play in the county, he said.

Supervisor Marty Nohe, R-Coles, said he could not support a development proposal for the courses, but did not shut the door on any forthcoming plan to remove the county from the golf business. Meanwhile, Supervisor John Jenkins, D-Neabsco, said the county has already invested considerably in the three golf courses and would do better to hold on to its properties while figuring a way to pay off debt.

“I don’t want to go that direction,” he said, in response to Stewart’s recommendation. “We have a huge, huge sunk cost here, and have equity in the golf courses.”

Let’s see where the Park Authority’s newly implemented cost-cutting measures lead, Jenkins said.

Staff writer Cheryl Chumley can be reached at 703-670-1907.