City-owned Old Avalon Golf Course fully reopens

Staff report

HOWLAND

At a weekday cost of $10 for nine holes of golf and $13 for nine holes with a cart, Enzo Cantalamessa, Warren’s safety-service director, says he thinks the price is right and the time is right for people to re-experience the city-owned Old Avalon Golf Course.

“The golfers will enjoy this course,” Mayor Doug Franklin agreed Friday during a press event at the Howland Township facility.

“I think it’s a forgiving layout while maintaining an appropriate level of challenge,” Cantalamessa said. The event kicked off the course’s re-opening after being shut down more than a year.

The course had a “soft opening” about four weeks ago on the front nine, but Friday marked the opening of the back nine.

Franklin and Cantalamessa talked to reporters, then hit balls on the driving range.

After a conflict arose between the city and the former course operator two years ago, the city closed the Warren-Sharon Road track and spent roughly $70,000 in 2013 to keep the grass cut and to apply the necessary chemicals. There was no revenue to offset the cost.

This year, under a contract with new course operators, Larry Petrozzi of Petrozzi Accounting and Consulting of Lisbon, the city will be responsible for almost none of the maintenance costs.

Petrozzi will pay the city $34,154 — the cost of the property taxes — for the right to operate the course and keep the profits.

Petrozzi said it took a lot of work and money to bring the course back to nearly the shape it was in the last time it was open. “I think the course is really nice,” he said.

Cantalamessa said he didn’t play Old Avalon growing up because he hasn’t golfed that long, but a lot of people have fond memories of playing it.

“It’s 80-plus years old. It reminds players of when they played it growing up,” he said.