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Golfers happy Old Avalon course to reopen in spring
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
Enzo Cantalamessa, the city’s safety-service director, says he’s received a number of positive comments from people upon learning that the city-owned Old Avalon golf course will reopen this spring.
“So many people have said, ‘Thank you,’” Cantalamessa said of the 18-hole course on Warren-Sharon Road in Howland.
The city recently signed a contract with Larry Petrozzi of Petrozzi Accounting and Consulting of Lisbon to resume operations after a one-year closure.
The city selected Petrozzi to run the course after reviewing a handful of proposals. The contract is for six years.
Two of the strengths that gave Petrozzi’s proposal the edge were his previous experience in operating a golf course and having the financial wherewithal, Cantalamessa said.
Petrozzi runs the nine-hole Eagle Pass Golf Course on state Route 172 in East Rochester, Columbiana County, just west of Guilford Lake.
The contract, signed in October, calls for Petrozzi to pay the city $34,154 in 2014 for the right to operate the course and keep the profits.
The $34,154 is the amount the city owes annually for the property taxes on the golf course. Petrozzi’s payments to the city will rise $6,000 each year starting in 2017, capped at $60,000 per year, according to the contract.
“The goal is to identify an operator who can make [the course] a success and make it as cost-neutral as possible to the city,” Cantalamessa said. “Historically, the course was never a profit-generator. It was a quality-of-life benefit by the city to its residents, not unlike a park.”
John Kouvas of OAG LLC operated the course from 2006 to 2012, but a disagreement between him and the city over who was responsible for improvements to the golf course led to a pending lawsuit in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court and closure of the course for the 2013 season.
The city maintained the course throughout 2013 with grass cutting, including specialty cutting, maintenance of the sprinkler system, winterization of the irrigation system and application of chemicals for weed control, Cantalamessa said.
The course should be ready when the normal time for golfing comes in the spring, despite the year layoff, he said.
“It’s not perfect, but it’s not a dirt field, either,”Cantalamessa said.
Among the biggest challenges for Petrozzi will be to get grounds-staffing in place and acquire the grounds-maintenance equipment necessary, Cantalamessa said. There is no maintenance equipment at the course now because Kouvas owned the equipment that had been there.