Kane County to ink new golf course deal
The possibility of inking a better deal for the management of the Kane County Forest Preserve District’s two 18-hole golf courses isn’t as appealing as possibly ending up with a bogey, commissioners said last week.
District officials will not send the management contracts out for competitive bids when they expire in March 2012. Instead, commissioners are poised to approve five-year extensions with Golfvisions Management Inc. and Meyer Family Golf Inc. for the ongoing management of Settler’s Hill in Geneva and Hughes Creek in Elburn.
“Our concern was, with the economy being the way it is, we have a very solid management agreement with a solid financial plan as of it,” Forest Preserve District Executive Director Monica Meyers said. “We felt it would be good to just extend this agreement at this time and re-evaluate it in four years.”
Commissioners noted the current contracts contain a number of performance guarantees district officials may not be able to negotiate into a new contract.
The extensions also call for a number of improvements at the courses that are yet to be detailed. Commissioners have long coveted creating a practice area or driving range at Settler’s Hill, which currently doesn’t have those otherwise common aspects of many area golf courses.
Such an upgrade will likely require a land purchase of portions of Settler’s Hill still owned by Kane County from the location’s days as a landfill. Forest preserve commissioners also serve as county board members, but face the obstacle of the landfill’s potential legal liabilities inherent in any such purchase.
Meyers said tree thinning, additional restroom facilities and better water drainage are all upgrades she wants to address at Settler’s Hill in the coming years.
“We feel there is a need for some improvements on the course,” Meyers said. “We’re going to put together a plan on what we’re going to do, what Golfvisions is going to do and what Waste Management is going to do.”
Waste Management still operates a gas recovery facility at the course on Fabyan Parkway that feeds electricity to the city of Geneva.