County Board majority says ‘No’ to FR Golf Club management contract

Enjoy it while you can – in one week with the start of the new fiscal year on July 1, it’s all over.

Kiss it goodbye – as of July 1, 2020, the FR Golf Club will functionally cease to exist after 82 years as the county’s second oldest surviving business, second only it would seem, to Shenandoah National Park. Royal Examiner Photos/Roger Bianchini – Royal Examiner Videos/Mark Williams

Following a Tuesday evening Special Meeting Public Hearing on a proposal to operate Warren County’s municipal Front Royal Golf Course at an initial annual cost of $25,000 under the management of a private entity created by current maintenance and operational staff, a 4-1 majority of the Warren County Board of Supervisors just said “NO”.

What they said “No” to, only Tony Carter dissenting, was 82 years of local history and recreational property to include golf, gifted to the citizens of this community by William Carson Sr. in memory of his dead teenage son, William Jr.

Carson Sr. was a pivotal member of this community, instrumental in the creation of Shenandoah National Park as a regional and local tourist attraction.

And while Carson Sr. and his son’s ghosts weren’t present – were they? – to hear this personal affront to their gift and their memory, many of those who have enjoyed the scenic Shenandoah River-side, more affordable municipal 9-hole golfing opportunity for much of their lives or who learned to play there after discovering its existence and lower than country club greens fees and membership rates, were.

“They made a mistake,” one angry course enthusiast said as the group left the Warren County Government Center meeting room during a recess following a PowerPoint on the history of the course and Virginia Golf LLC’s presentation totaling 45 minutes, and the hour-and-30 minute public hearing, board discussion, and vote that followed.

What the board majority also said “No” to, was the majority opinion of its constituency that cared to comment. There were 33 submissions by email, phone call, and public hearing comment in favor of the municipal club operational proposal versus a minority of 5. Most of that minority took to the public hearing microphone for lengthy, un-timed statements against the basic concept of governmental provision of recreational opportunities at a more affordable cost to its citizens than provided by the private sector.

Not an “essential service” of government, opponents of the course’s continued operation under County supervision, argued.

A philosophical and financial impasse was reflected between a majority of the county’s elected officials and their constituents regarding allowing the County’s municipal FR Golf Club course to remain operational as a private sector club-generated offer to take over management with a $25,000 initial county contribution was rejected by a 4-1 vote.

Cheryl Cullers appeared to speak for those five citizens and the board majority in stating support of the minority public hearing opinion that the county government shouldn’t “compete with industry” – in this case, the four private-sector golf/country clubs in the county. Though, as was again pointed out by course supporters, it was the gifted Front Royal municipal course that was the county’s first golf course, and one of the state’s first, and it has been the private sector club owners who have chosen to locate here to compete with that state historical site’s course.

The five public hearing speakers against the County’s allowing a newly created private sector entity grown out of personnel involved in an existing resurrection of the course maintenance and future planning were Bowling Green Country Club’s Ginger Winkler, and Gary Kushner, Paul Gabbert, James Harper, and Alberto Medina.

They were countered by four public hearing speakers, Bob Minor, Vincent Page, Chris Lang and a Mr. Gray whose first name we did not get; as well as 15 more people present who raised their hands in support of the pro-golf course management proposal speakers; as well as 12 emails of support (with a 13th email judged neutral) submitted for the public hearing, read into the record by board Clerk Emily Ciarrocchi; and two direct phone calls of support board Chair Walter Mabe acknowledged receipt of.

I know I have a mask on, but you can put your hands down – oh, it’s the pro-golf club count, never mind – as the supervisors’ majority eventually did in consideration of your majority opinion.

However, perhaps rather than numbers the board majority was swayed by the dominant amount of unlimited time the anti-municipal golf course speakers were given to state their cases in the new board majority’s meeting format of unlimited public speaker time to express their opinions. Several kill-the-municipal-golf-course speakers went comfortably deep into the 10 to 20 … minute range. Some of those speakers used the lower cost offered by the Virginia Golf LLC group, at $25,000 a quarter of an earlier $100,000 annual management proposal, to argue that the new LLC wasn’t competent to manage the course and property.

Nicholls countered for his group that while the LLC was new, he and Nash were experienced in course maintenance and operations personally. Nicholls also noted the family nature of the group, with his wife’s bookkeeping and sons’ promotional writing skills at play.

Board Chair Mabe told Nicholls and Nash he wished they “had more skin in the game”. A proposal supporter asked how much more “skin” than a significant personal investment and a likely overtime commitment to the project, could be expected of a management proposal. It was a question that went unaddressed by the chairman.

“Give them a shot, what have you got to lose – what are you losing now? You talk about skin in the game, you want to get rid of it and they want to take it – I don’t see the problem,” one proposal supporter told the county’s elected officials.

Louis Nicholls, left, and Ray Nash at the podium, presented a very affordable operational case for transitioning the County’s 82-year-old gifted municipal golf course and recreational property to private sector management, possibly even eventual ownership. However, four supervisors sided with a 5-person minority (of 38 submissions) in saying, “No, not another penny – shut it down July 1.”

County Administrator Doug Stanley noted that the County would have comparable costs to the $25,000 proposal in supporting the property this year without the Virginia Golf LLC contract or golf on the property. And Nicholls’ expressed confidence in turning the property profitable fairly quickly in the wake of the County’s long-term mismanagement so that his company’s $25,000 annual funding request would only be necessary short term on a property the County had been losing an estimated $110,000-plus annually on for years.

However, Tony Carter’s motion to accept the proposal died without a second.

Delores Oates motion to reject the proposal, seconded by Cullers, then passed 4-1, with only Carter dissenting.

Why not 15th-century golf?

South River District’s Cullers then offered a compromise solution, noting that while not a golfer, she had studied the origins of golf, dating it back to 15th century Scotland.

“I’m pretty sure they didn’t have immaculate courses. But they loved the game and progressed through the years. So, why can’t we mow it and have it in a decent shape and let people go out and golf for free? I don’t have a problem with that,” she said of a no-golf-specific funded option.

South River Supervisor Cheryl Cullers, file photo above, had a novel idea – take municipal golf back to 15th century Scotland, unmanicured, unfunded – and it’ll be FREE! Below, FR Golf Club website photo of a man and his dog on the fairway – ‘Hey boy, feel like eating a little grass while we’re out here? The goats haven’t arrived from the 15th century yet.’

Cullers did not elaborate on how resorting to 15th-century maintenance standards at the unforgiving river’s edge allowing for FREE municipal golf, did not equate to unfair competition for private sector courses. But there it is sports fans – get out in the really rough, ruff and let her rip – it’ll be FREE!!!

WAIT, Cheryl – did they have mowers back then, or just use grazing goats? Now there’ another natural hazard in the making.

It now appears that of July 1, without funding or a management team in place, operations and play at the 82-year-old Front Royal Golf Club will cease. That is what County Administrator Doug Stanley said in response to Supervisor Carter’s question prior to the vote on Oates’ motion to deny the management contract proposal. The property’s hiking trails will remain accessible, but the clubhouse will apparently also be closed, Stanley indicated in the wake of the supervisors’ decision not to fund the golf operations.

Delores Oates’, above, assertion on comparable private-sector greens fees at one private county course was contradicted by one spectator who noted the lower fee she cited was only till 3 p.m. after which it nearly doubles. Below, only Tony Carter sided with those seeking to save, not only a golf course but an 82-year-old piece of county history and a personal family recreational legacy to this community’s citizens.

As for the property’s ultimate fate, it would seem the board decision will likely weaken the County’s legal stance in a dispute with Carson family heirs over ownership of the property. It was a court dispute staff and Virginia Golf LLC principals told the supervisors the County likely had the upper hand in with the history of management of the recreational property, with golf, as intended in the deeded gift from William Carson Sr. 82 years ago. By an October civil court date that will no longer have been the case for three to four months.

Other business

Also, on the meeting agenda was the background on the need for immediate movement on acceptance of a $30,000 Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) Coronavirus CARES (Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Securities) Act grant to help pay the County’s municipal airport hangar debt service; followed by Sheriff Mark Butler’s work session plea for funding to immediately replace his department’s obsolete and non-functional body cameras; and County Deputy Emergency Manager Rick Farrall’s overview of the status of implementing, with the Town of Front Royal, the County-received federal CARES Act local business and citizen relief funds of $3.5 million.

Board Chair Walt Mabe’s early meeting message to citizens appeared to be, sure talk as long as you want within the 40-minute group guideline, just skirt the personal attacks on, and potential slander of, staff. Opponents of continuing operations of the municipal FR Golf Club took full advantage of the open public hearing speaker clock.

See those topic discussions following the Front Royal Golf Club history PowerPoint, Club Management Proposal presentation, Public Hearing and board of supervisors discussion and vote that opened Tuesday’s Special Meeting – following Chairman Mabe’s public apology to Mr. Kushner for cutting him off after 15 to 20 minutes of public comment at the board’s last meeting; and the chairman’s request that citizens stop berating, personally attacking or perhaps even flirt with “slander” of county staff during public comments, in these Royal Examiner videos: