Youngstown-owned golf course grips for possible cuts in hours

By David Skolnick

There also is a chance the city won’t open its public pools next summer.

YOUNGSTOWN — If the financially strapped city can’t find a company to manage its Henry Stambaugh Golf Course or recall laid off workers to operate it, the course’s days and hours of operations would be reduced next year.

The city won’t close the 87-year-old course on the North Side and has no interest in selling it, said Jason Whitehead, director of the city’s park and recreation commission and the mayor’s chief of staff.

But it may have to reduce the hours and days it keeps the golf course open next year, he said.

The city will end this year with a deficit in its general fund of more than $1 million, and the outlook for 2010 is worse, city administration officials say.

Unfortunately that means the city’s recreational facilities — the golf course and the two public pools — will take a hit, Whitehead said.

The city will seek proposals next month from companies interested in leasing the golf course, Whitehead said. If the city succeeds in finding a company, it would need to negotiate payment issues, such as the city receiving a flat fee or a percentage of profits, if there are any, he said.

When asked how a company could turn a profit on a course when the city fails to do so every year, Whitehead said, “That would be up to them.”

The course typically opens in mid-March and closes at the end of November, weather permitting, Whitehead said. During that time, it opens when the sun comes up and closes about sundown, he said.

The course has never turned a profit, usually losing close to $100,000 a year.

The deficit this year was about $26,000. The deficit was less in 2009 than other years because the city opened the course two weeks later than usual and closed it a month early, Whitehead said. That led to less employee costs, a reduction in the gas bill, and less maintenance costs, he said.

Another option is for the city to rehire eight part-time park and recreation commission workers laid off in September in an effort to reduce costs, Whitehead said.

“If they’re are recalled, we could assign some of them to the course,” he said.

That would save a significant amount of money for the city, he said.

The city would have to use full-time park and recreation employees, who make about $30,000 each in annual base salary and receive full health care benefits, at the golf course to keep it open, Whitehead said.

The laid-off part-time workers were paid $7 to $9 an hour with no medical benefits.

Before the part-timers could come back, the city would have to recall the one full-time employee in the park and recreation department laid off, said Cicero Davis, president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2312 and Local 2312B. The part-timers are members of Local 2312B.

There are two open positions in the city and the laid-off full-time worker could fill one of those jobs paving the way for the part-timers to return early next year, Davis said.

Davis questioned why the part-timers were let go because there is little savings in laying them off.

The city, under its union contract, had to first cut part-time jobs before laying off full-timers, Whitehead said. But only one full-time park and recreation worker was laid off, Davis said.

If neither option is viable and the city has to use full-time employees, the course’s season would start later than normal and end early, he said. Also, the course would be closed a few days a week — during weekdays — with shorter hours, he said.

Meanwhile, the outlook for the city’s two public pools opening next summer isn’t good.

There is a chance the city won’t open the pools, Whitehead said.

The city will attempt to find a company to manage the North Side Pool on Belmont Avenue. If that fails, the city would look to see if it’s financially possible to bring back laid-off, part-time workers to oversee the pool, he said.

“I’m not sure we could open the pool without [the laid-off workers] to staff it,” Whitehead said.

The city can’t hire seasonal workers, such as summer lifeguards, without recalling full-time and part-time employees who were laid off, Whitehead said.

“We may be able to hire lifeguards as vendors,” he said. “But I’d expect a union grievance and we wouldn’t be able to open” the pools.

Even if the city can find a way to open the North Side Pool it’s quite possible that Borts Pool on Belle Vista Avenue on the West Side, closed last summer to save money, won’t open, he said.

Borts needs about $50,000 to $100,000 worth of improvements before it could be used, Whitehead said.

With Borts closed, the city’s pool budget deficit was $82,203.23 in 2009. The deficit in 2008, with both pools opened, was $139,255.04.

“We were fine with North Side” being the only pool open last summer, Whitehead said.

The city’s pool season typically runs for eight weeks between mid-June and mid-August.

skolnick@vindy.com