It's that time again when the city releases the full audit of the last year's fiscal activities and financial status. This audit is posted on the city web site and we will also put a link in this article at the bottom. As we promised in our previous article, Golden Fairways, we would follow up and update everyone when we received the latest information on the golf course operating cost. 

As we stated before, according to the city's own financial audit through the last 10 years the golf course has never turned a profit. It has experienced losses from 250k to 438k per year. Well, this last year was no different. This appears to be the worst year yet, showing the losses trending up significantly in the past 5 years. The total loss for last year was a staggering FOOOORE hundred and sixty thousand dollars ($460,000). Just to put it into perspective, total police and fire expenditures were $1,500,000 and $204,000 respectively. Again, 75% of all public agency golf courses make enough to cover all on-site expenses. The golf course services a small swath of the population here, and there is not a tourist base here to support it. We can all agree if this course was budget neutral (no loss or gain) that we would be completely happy with this feature in our city. Remember, even in the hay day of Cabela's going back to 2012 this course has never come close to being budget neutral. At the very least, we need a serious look at the business model to examine if this course is even feasible here or at least shrinking the size of it to a manageable size to match its revenue stream (9 holes). We can't get the snow removed in the snow routes, how are we justifying going in the hole to the tune of $900,000 over the past 2 years alone? This kind of money could be used to have an indoor pool, which would allow year around revenue, and year around enjoyment for the kids and adults at the aqua center.

The demographics have changed significantly in Sidney after the Cabela's exit. The middle class incomes were decimated with the exit and the disposable income is not as plentiful to support golf memberships and green fees. We have to be patient in building it back. In the meantime its essential that our city and county leaders manage and curtail the spending to match the what the general population can absorb and needs. We cannot continue to pull capital out of the local economy via property taxes and fees by reckless spending on services that are under utilized. We all want the best for Sidney and Cheyenne county, and that means its time to make tough decisions and not continue with the same decision making because "that's how its always been done".

https://www.cityofsidney.org/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/2428