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Youngstown seeks OK to sell beer at Stambaugh golf course
YOUNGSTOWN
If the city gets approval from the Ohio Division of Liquor Control, beer will be sold at the publicly owned Henry Stambaugh Golf Course on Gypsy Lane.
The nine-hole course on the city’s North Side is losing business because “leagues say, ‘We’re not coming if you don’t sell beer,’” said Robert Burke, the city’s park and recreation director.
A state liquor control agent will tour the course in two to three weeks, and about seven or eight weeks later, the state likely will give the city a license to sell beer, Burke said.
“My goal is to allow golfers to drink on the whole [course], but it’s up to the state investigator,” he said.
The beer would be sold in the snack-food area inside the course’s clubhouse in metal cans and/or plastic bottles and not in glass bottles, Burke said. The license is $376 annually.
“We don’t want to become a full-fledged bar,” Burke said. “When the course is closed, the bar is closed. We will sell only during the season when the course is open. This should improve attendance because we’ll attract more leagues to the course.”
Meanwhile, the city and the school district are finalizing agreements that would have them swap properties, said Anthony Donofrio, the city’s deputy law director.
No money would exchange hands, he said.
Once finalized, the city would take ownership of:
A parcel near Discovery Program and Kirkmere, the former Kirkmere Elementary School building on Kirk Road on the West Side.
The city owns a baseball field and half of the football field there, Burke said. The city also maintains the other half of the football field and a basketball court, which are owned by the school district.
Property near the former Sheridan Elementary School on Hudson Avenue on the South Side, owned by the district. It would become part of the city-owned Sheridan Park with new playground equipment, Burke said.
The proposal would give these two city-owned properties to the school district:
A playground near William Holmes McGuffey Elementary School on South Schenley Avenue on the West Side.
A playground near Taft Elementary School on East Avondale Avenue on the South Side. The city would also demolish a small utility building on the property before giving the land to the school district, Donofrio said.