AVALON SOUTH GOLF COURSE Joy: I've sunk a lot of green into links

The golf course operator said he installed a $300,000 watering system and built a $200,000 clubhouse but that city officials want to evict him.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Tony Joy says he has invested more than $700,000 in the city-owned Avalon South Golf Course but all he has received from officials is more bills.
Joy and one of his attorneys, Richard Schwartz, said they don't think the public realizes how much work the operator has done at the course, which is in Howland Township.
"I love this course, and I love what I do," Joy said. "Since I took over in 1988, I have spent $745,962 in an effort to improve this course. I would like to do more if I could."
Joy said he paid $300,000 to install a watering system on the course and more than $200,000 to build a new clubhouse.
"What I did to this course benefits the city, not me," Joy said. "I can't take a $300,000 watering system with me when I leave."
Despite what Joy said he's done at the course, he said city officials still want to evict him.
Joy has sued to try to stop the eviction. A hearing is set for Thursday in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
"Since I took over the course, I was always able to work things out with the city," Joy said. "I was told by city officials that I would be credited for the improvements I made, and I was also told in 1988 that I would not have to pay taxes."
Missed payments
According to city officials, Joy, who has operated the course since the 1980s, has missed rental payments and is defaulting on property taxes and a $425,000 loan. Joy pays rent for the property.
Joy said that in the years he has operated the course he has missed "only three rental payments."
In 1996, Joy said, city officials told him he didn't have to pay rent because the clubhouse construction ended up costing Joy more than anticipated. A few years later, the city told him he owed money for back taxes.
"This was a shock because I was told that I didn't have to pay anything," Joy said. "I talked to Mayor Dan Sferra, and he said we would work something out and that I wouldn't have to pay the rent ... Dan recognized that there was a problem."
Sferra has said that he tried to work with Joy whenever possible.
'Eyesores'
Joy said that because he was under the belief that he didn't have to pay taxes, he didn't complain when the county constructed a water tower on a part of the golf course or when city officials installed communication towers on the land.
"The towers are an eyesore, and I wish they weren't here," Joy said. Schwartz noted the towers also make it difficult for Joy to expand the course.
"If he wants to make a hole longer, for instance, he can't because the towers are in the way," Schwartz said. "They are using the land he is leasing, and he is not getting anything for it."
Joy said he became upset when he received a bill saying he had to pay property taxes for the parcel that contained the county water tower.
"That tower sits on the front part of the parcel of land, which is on the eastern part of the property," Joy said. "It seemed ridiculous to me that I had to pay the tax bill for the part of the land that county's water tower is on, but I paid it. I then went to the county officials, and they are fixing it so I won't have to pay for that part, since it's their water tower -- but I didn't get the $2,000 back I had already paid."
Atty. Maridee Costanzo, another lawyer working for Joy, said the FBI has asked Joy about the water and communication towers.
Costanzo said her client, who is cooperating with the FBI, is scheduled to testify in front of a federal grand jury soon.
The grand jury convened last month and began hearing testimony concerning, among other things, construction of a clubhouse at the course, officials said.
Costanzo said the FBI has also discussed with Joy loans he got to build the clubhouse.
sinkovich@vindy.com