Broadacres Management Deal Back on Orangetown Agenda

The proposed deal to bring in AppliedGolf to managed Broadacres Golf Course will be on the agenda for the regular Orangetown Town Council meeting 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Orangetown Town Hall.

If the town council approves the contract, AppliedGolf would manage the nine-hole golf course in Orangeburg in 2014 and 2015 with an option for 2016. The proposal came out of the town board's search for a way to lessen or eliminate annual financial losses at the golf course.

AppliedGolf President Dave Wasenda made a presentation to the council Dec. 10 and the deal was put on the agenda for Dec. 17, but it was tabled. Supervisor Andy Stewart and Councilman Paul Valentine said they were ready to vote, but Councilmen Denis Troy and Tom Diviny called for it to be pushed back to the next meeting and Councilman Tom Morr was absent. 

Diviny raised questions about how much savings the deal would provide for the town and there were other points about which he wanted clarification. He added that he wasn't necessarily opposed to the deal and he met with Wasenda since the Dec. 17 meeting to find out more. 

Stewart said that at least a framework for the deal had to be approved by Jan. 24 or AppliedGolf would walk away. For more on the delay, read this report on Patch. Stewart brought the deal up again during his State of the Town speech last week, citing it as an example of a creative solution to help the town with its budget issues.

"For example, next week we will vote on a proposal to change the management of Broadacres Golf Course, using Applied Golf as a contractor, saving us, potentially, hundreds of thousands of dollars over three years," Stewart said.."It came out of the town board's research on the golf deficit and trying to find solutions to that and ideas from the town board. We can keep it open. We can save money. And we can bind ourselves only to a two or three year contract so the redevelopment of Rockland Psych, which has to happen....can happen. It's not restrained by that. It is in fact helped by that."

The full agenda for Tuesday's meeting is available through the Orangetown website here. Among the other items on the agenda are setting the town council meeting schedule for the rest of 2014 and appointing and reappointing town board member liaisons for town land use boards and committees.