They just so happen to all be members of the Becker City Council, including Mayor Lefty Kleis, Members Rick Hendrickson, Lynette Brannan, Tracy Bertram and Adam Oliver.

 

As the committee debates,  fact-finds and scrutinizes scenarios each month at their bi-monthly workshops, a question keeps popping into my head every time the group assembles.

 

Why not let the people decide?

 

Why do these five people want whatever decision they make to be forever stamped to their political and social resumés? Also, why have a golf task force committee and not allow citizens to be part of the group to help make the decisions?

 

My thoughts have always been this, instead of examining five to six scenarios (including leasing, selling and reducing), why not give the decision over to the people who can make the decision for you?

 

One of the first things I thought the city should do is hold a public forum and invite the entire population of Becker to the meeting. Open the mic and let them weigh the pros and cons of the city running a golf course or selling it. Take a vote and whatever the majority wants, go in that direction.

 

A few months ago, I thought it would be a great idea to conduct a survey among as many Becker city folk as I could gather and do an article on the findings. As usual, my schedule limited me in getting out and pounding on doors, but I did send the survey out to around 25 people via email to garner their answers to some questions I thought were pertinent to the situation.

 

I know 25 people is hardly a fair sampling of the great City of Becker, but in my mind it was a start.

 

To begin, I asked whether the respondents were golfers or not and 46% of them said they were. Twenty-three percent said they don’t golf at all, 15% said they golf a lot year ‘round (30 times or so)  and another 15% said they have clubs, but no time or money to spend on golf.

I asked them if, when they do golf, do they golf at Pebble Creek?

 

Thirty percent said they do, 23% said they don’t golf at PC but do go to Hunter’s Ridge to eat and drink and another 23% said they don’t patronize either PC or HR. Another 15% said they golf at PC once or twice a year but usually golf at other area golf courses more frequently and another 8% said if they did golf at PC, they would also patronize HC.

 

I then asked “are you in favor of Becker keeping a golf course?”

 

Sixty-two percent answered “yes”, 8% said “no”, 31% said they didn’t care either way and another 8% said they couldn’t decide because they didn’t have enough information on the subject.

 

When asked, “would you be in favor of the city selling the golf course, 38% said “no”, 23% said “yes”, 31% had no opinion and 8% said “not enough info” while 7% said, “they’d like to see the city keep the golf course but run it like a business and it should at least break even or make money.”

 

When asked if they’d be in favor of the city hiring a management company to run the golf course, 38% said “no”, another 38% said “no opinion”, 15% said “yes”, if that is what it takes to make money.

 

I followed with a question asking the respondents, “would you be in favor of the city keeping PC and trying to ‘right the ship’?”

 

Fifty-four percent said “yes”. Thirty-eight percent “don’t care either way”, eight percent said “not enough info” and 0% said “no”.

 

When asked if the city should continue to invest money into improving the golf course or “scrap the master plan”, 58% said the city should continue to spend money on PC but keep it minimal with no taxes, since it is an asset to the city. Twenty-five percent said to scrap the master plan and 9% said to “hold off on spending for now, lower rates and try to increase use.”

 

When asked if citizens thought city staff was doing a good job running the golf course, 38% said “no”, 31% said they had no opinion, 15% said “yes” and 15% said they didn’t have enough information and didn’t think so because the golf course is not making money or breaking even.

 

The majority of respondents to the survey were people aged 26-50 (62%) with 38% being ages 50+.

 

Sixty-two percent were male, 38% female.

 

I know my survey is just a very small sampling and is not all that scientific, but in my eyes, it looks like the people of Becker are interested in keeping the golf course in Becker, are in favor of the city continuing to run the golf course and are okay with the city spending money to improve the golf course as long as the golf course broke even or made a little money along the way.

 

To me, all the scenarios but one the task force is considering should be thrown out.

 

Keep the golf course and empower the manager.

 

Hand over the reins to the Troy Malo. Let him do what he was hired to do and have him manage the entity like the city lets other managers do. Remember, the city, the state and this great country of ours is coming out of a deep recession and it’ll take some time to get “the ship righted”.

 

And, just as one local resident said in a recent task force workshop, “if the city hangs in there and allows the golf director and his staff to do his job while the economy recovers, this golf course could become a diamond in the rough eventually.”

 

A ship can’t be righted if it is being pulled from both sides.