Calvert Approves Golf Course Purchase

The commissioners voted 3 to 2 to buy the course and added $650,000 toward closing costs, repairs and operational funds. Commissioners Gerald W. Clark (R-Lusby) and Susan Shaw (R-Huntingtown) voted against the proposal.

The county, acting on its right of first refusal, had three months to take action after receiving notice in June that an investor was interested in the property.

"I cannot justify taking this money out of the pockets of people who are struggling when there was the opportunity to have it be a viable private business that contributed to the tax base in Calvert County," Shaw said.

The county had spent nearly $1.87 million toward the debt service and operation of the golf course as part of an agreement with the Maryland Economic Development Corp., which operates the 18-hole facility. In 2001, the county commissioners persuaded MEDCO to buy the course for $4.7 million, in an effort to preserve the 143 acres from development.

That deal included using an $800,000 state Program Open Space grant and $870,000 from the Calvert County Economic Development Authority, a quasi-governmental agency.

"We thought at some point it would turn a profit and be able to pay its own debt," said Commissioner Wilson H. Parran (D-Huntingtown), who said the county had extended the agreement with MEDCO to pay the debt service on the bonds sold to buy the course.

The county had offered to buy the course from the bondholders but was turned down. "I think it is a very good choice and a good decision to purchase this course," Parran said.

Clark, however, said he thought the deal between the bondholders and an anonymous private investor would have fallen through, putting the county in a better bargaining position for the facility.

"Ultimately, the bondholders were made whole. MEDCO's image was made whole, and Calvert County, I believe, paid too much for this golf course," Clark said.

Commissioner Linda L. Kelley (R-At Large) said waiting for the deal to fall through "would have been rolling the dice." She said the commissioners recently paid $93,000 per acre for the land on which the Prince Frederick aquatic center is to be built and $74,000 per acre for Solomons ballfields. By comparison, the golf course cost the county $21,000 per acre.

Commissioner Barbara A. Stinnett (D-At Large) submitted what she estimated were the signatures of 300 community members in favor of buying the course. She said the private investor "didn't have the greatest track record" on other golf courses he had bought.

Seven golfers, including senior citizens and Calvert and Patuxent high schools' golf team members, supported the county's purchase, calling the course an affordable amenity for the community.

"Yes, it has been on hard times, but it is now in as good as condition as it ever has been," said Jack Williams, 87, of Solomons, referring to the facility's decline when MEDCO first took it over.

Bob Litz, head of the Tim O'Brien Senior Golf League at Chesapeake Hills, said the golf course can "become a valuable asset to this county." He said the commissioners "don't mind putting money in other facilities and [getting] no revenue at all" in return.

The county plans to put together a group to review options about operating the course and handling capital costs, such as the clubhouse, said Terry Shannon, county finance director.