Gurnee to help cover payroll at shuttered Bittersweet Golf Course

The Gurnee village board has approved a plan to help cover payroll at the village-owned Bittersweet Golf Course through the end of the month. But if coronavirus restrictions persist and the course can't reopen in May, the village may need to take further action.

Under the plan, village staff has permission to use up to $50,000 to help cover payroll and expenses at the golf course, which is managed by Mundelein-based GolfVisions. The money will come from the $235,000 budgeted for capital improvements at the course, village administrator Patrick Muetz said Monday night.

"This was for expenditures, but the proposal by staff is to shift some of that funding from capital to operations," Muetz said. "We would obviously only transfer over what is needed."

Muetz said he directed Cathy Ralston of GolfVisions to come up with cost reductions that can be made at the course. He said usually the course spends about $60,000 to $70,000 on expenses in April and payroll is about $35,000 of that.

"Obviously a golf course needs constant care, especially when the growing season starts," Muetz said. "We want to be able to help them out to make sure that when this opens back up they're going to be ready to hit the ground running."

Village board member Greg Garner asked about what the worst case scenario might look like, and Muetz said Ralston was looking into it.

"If they need beyond the $50,000 then obviously I'm back before you and we're having a serious discussion on what to do out there at the golf course," Muetz said.

Bittersweet is on a 240-acre site near Almond Road and Grand Avenue, west of Gurnee Mills. The village purchased the golf course in 2011 for about $525,000 two years after it fell into foreclosure in part because of the recession.

The vote to help the golf course was unanimous Monday night. Board members met in person at the village hall. Everyone in attendance wore masks, practiced social distancing and sat about six feet from each other.