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NORWALK, Conn. ‒ The Norwalk Daily Voice accepts signed, original letters to the editor. We reserve the right to edit submissions, but we respectfully ask that you keep your correspondence under 500 words. Please send letters to norwalk@dailyvoice.com.
To the Editor:
If asked only whether an economically viable golf course should be maintained at Oak Hills, I would have no problem voting yes.
Unfortunately, the Oak Hill Authority itself states that the course is not financially viable and is seeking a loan of $150,000 from the city, or about what two teachers make in a year, in addition to the $3 million it already owes the city.
The Authority believes that a driving range will attract more golfers to the course and boost revenue. Like an old Mickey Rooney movie, the range has become the deus ex machina that will rescue the enterprise. However as planned, the range has limited hours and thus may well become another liability like the restaurant. I have heard no estimate of prospective usage, e.g. the number of people using the range per day or week or year, or how many new rounds will be generated.
Recently the Authority's Ad Hoc Committee tried to patch together a woefully inadequate RRP (request for proposal) for the range that no contractor in his right mind would touch with a surveyor's rod!
The Authority, which runs the park in the name of taxpayers, not just golfers, has ignored other uses that are in the master plan. Building the driving range would raze one of the few heavily wooded preserves within the city limits, leaving only a thin curtain of trees on its periphery and making a mockery of wild-life conservation and ecology. Also, it is not at all clear that the environmental authorities would even permit its construction. The Authority says that it is too strapped financially to afford a feasibility study.
The Quattro Pazza Restaurant was built to support the golf club, but couldn't even support itself. In hindsight, a very bad call, given that an alternative, player-friendly restaurant had been considered and then rejected. The idea of a 50-60 yard pitching range to help people warm up with a bucket of balls was also dropped.
The marketing outreach to golfers has been ineffective. The recession and rain have further hurt revenue. Oak Hills lies on ledge rock which doesn't allow drainage, an ongoing problem that limits playing time and, hence, revenue.
At the current fees, Oak Hills does not pay for itself. Hoping to attract more players, the Authority has slightly lowered its fees in hopes of increasing the number of rounds played. I wish them luck on this tricky and risky endeavor.
In brief, the Authority has failed to present compelling reasons for a driving range. It should come up with a plan B. A pitching range would be a good way to let players warm up and improve their skills and could easily be installed without felling any trees.
Taxpayers should not have to pay for another huge error in judgment, this time manifested not just in dollars but in environmental damage. We taxpayers have far more important priorities than driving ranges.
Scott Kimmich
Comments (6)
Please let's cut some more money from the BOE budget so we could help a private managed golf course. The city better not give them one freaking dime. If they do there will be some serious questions that will need to be answered from our elected officials. Oak Hills can go and get a loan from a bank like every other business can if they qualify. How freaking dare they?!?! I wish I had big ones like them to do this. All members of their board or whatever they have running this place should resign NOW based on plain stupidity. We cut library aides, VP's teachers, and lord knows what else but they city has money to give to a golf course!??! If that's the case then we have some very serious wrapped priorities in this city. If the city gives them oh I'm sorry "loans" them the money the BOE should be forgiven for the loan they received last year because of an accounting error and put that money back into the classrooms where it belongs!
the accounting error you mention was created by and allowed to occur under the watch of someone you constanly praise as your champion, Dr. Marks.
Ever think that if the golf course could generate enough money it would free up more for the schools.
Driving Range Now!
This hallowed cry, "Driving Range Now!" has no bearing whatsoever on what is actually going on at the Course in terms of mismanagement and certainly has no bearing on the feasibility of installing a driving range. It sounds, instead, like a hollow cheer for a complicated problem with no basis in reality. A driving range will not get this OHPA out of its fiscal problems. The area they have chosen for building the driving range is an impossibility without millions of dollars in initial expenses.
To be a cheerleader for a driving range, then, that will not address the money issue of the course rings hollow and simplistic. It also sounds very, very spoiled. Because you are a golfer with a beautiful golf course you use almost privately, although it is designated as a Park for every Norwalker's use, you sound entitled and more than a little bit spoiled.
I say $150,000 to any other more pressing issue, education, child's welfare, etc., than golf with good reasons, more than a cheer.
M. Murray, I am a bit amazed at the simplistic way in which land development is regarded when it comes to a driving range. If you have walked the land where the range is being proposed as I have, you will see a large parcel with ledge and elevations that drop and rise precipitously. All of the changes in the land have to be smoothed, evened out, either by fill (at least a few hundred cubic yards) or by taking away the existing ledge.
The earth fill cannot be any junk found by the toll way: it must contain a certain ability to hold its shape while draining well with a minimum of stones. The slope of the range must be made from a high point at the tee areas to a low point at the range's end - golfers like to see where their ball ends up once hit.
A range is generally not completely flat, that is, it might be pitched for the best drainage or have slight, undulating forms at various distances all to make the golf practice worthwhile.
In addition, since this range will be adjacent to parking and homes, high nets will have to be installed in such a way as to disallow any strays to hit automobiles or homes as well as withstand inclement weather such as a hurricane.
The rule of thumb for total length required for a good driving range is 350 yards - that is three and a half football fields. Once the land is prepared, it must be seeded with the appropriate mix to withstand the barrage of golf balls on it. Someone must retrieve those golf balls on a regular basis.
A two-story dwelling for those using the range as proposed with between 20 and 40 bays, if used consistently as would be required to realize any profit for Oak Hills, will attrack many, many cars increasing the traffic on Fillow significantly. Since lights cannot be used for night time play, the range would only be used in the daytime hours, reducing the number of players availed of the range.
Building the range is not just downing a bunch of trees and hanging some nets about. It requires laser grading, careful calculations for soils required and careful surveying of the shape and forms to make the range most effective.
Given the land, and I do encourage you to walk it now while the trees are still standing, I cannot possibly fathom what company would take this project on with a leasing agreement then share the profits with Oak Hills. The initial outlay to create the range is just too great. In addition, I think there is serious overlook here by the OHPA as to the amount of traffic this range will attract should it be the size and dimensions they are proposing.
In any case, with initial costs very high, the driving range is not going to save Oak Hills from itself or from its poor management.
Actually Scott the huge error in judgment was voting for you thinking that you had democratic values when you actually are just another Moccia old boys club Republican. You should really do the right and honorable thing and step down and force an election and re run as what you actually are..
WILL YOU DO THE RIGHT THING SCOTT AND RESIGN?????
It shouldn't be too hard to figure out whether the range would be profitable. Biggest cost for driving ranges is land. Since it only needs to be cleared and not purchased, that would be a one time cost. Coin operated token machines and ball dispensers could limit employee overhead. I'm not really a golfer so I don't know the area's demand for one, but considering it would be attached to a golf course it seems like a good location to start one. If the original investment isn't too high it may be sustainable