BY KEITH LIPPOLDT
klippoldt@gbtribune.com
The City of Great Bend has been without a golf course for the better part of three years since Stone Ridge Golf Club, located just north of the city, closed down in 2022. Knowing what a public golf course could do for Great Bend, the Great Bend Recreation Commission, along with the GBRC Board, voted to enter into an agreement with KemperSports, a golf course management company headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois.
The plans are contingent upon final donation and funding approval. According to a press release from GBRC Executive Director Chris Umphres, the project is “currently in the planning and review stages and would bring a high-quality, publicly accessible, 18-hole golf facility to our community.
“Local investors are optimistic that necessary funding will be secured through a combination of local resources and potential private partnerships.”
“We’re excited about the opportunity to provide a top-tier recreational amenity that will serve our residents and attract visitors to the area,” Umphres said. “This project has the potential to enhance our quality of life, promote tourism, and support local economic growth. GBRC is in the business of operating recreation facilities and programs. However, accepting this golf course is just Step 1 in the process. GBRC does not have the budget to do the large capital projects needed on this course. However, GBRC will be a proud partner, supporter, and operator of this large community project if funding matches the vision.”
Umphres stated at the Monday Board meeting that his department was not staffed or budgeted for such a project. Trying to take it all on would cost the department established programs and they were not willing to do that. Umphres said that if the investors come through with what they are saying, then it would be something his budget could support.
“We can’t sustain capital improvements with our budget, but we can sustain some operating costs, and more of this will come out later when we get closer. What I really want to attack today on this issue is, do we have interest if the money is available? Is it something you feel like the Rec Center should be involved with, making sure that this turns over to a public course? I just need to know if this is where we want to put some time and energy in, not necessarily throwing ideas on how much to throw at this. We don’t even know what the final cost is. What they’re talking about doing is donating the golf course to the Rec Center, and then them funding the capital improvements needed to get this course to where we feel like we can go. What we would bring into it is operating it. Whether we operate it with the help of others, whether we operate it internally, it just depends on what a consulting firm would tell us what the best avenue is. But it’s pretty exciting.
The subject brought a lot of discussion from the board members, naturally hesitant to approve a huge project like this.
“I heard you say we may use an outside company to run it, or we might run it internally,” board member Colleen Newman said. “I am very concerned about us running it internally, because this is your staff here. You guys are already spread very thin, and I don’t feel like that’s a wise idea. So I am in favor of it if we use KemperSports, or something similar to help us run it. But I don’t want us to get in over our head. I have a cousin who has a degree from K-State in golf course management and how to do the turf and everything. There’s a lot to it. I don’t want us to take it over. This group of people has to run it. That’s my main concern.”
“This is what we’ve worked out with Kemper. It’s their personnel. I don’t have the money and personnel to basically double our staff,” Umphres said. “So what Kemper does is they attempt to hire local people, but it’s their personnel. If there is a position where they don’t find a qualified candidate, they will bring someone in from out of town. They do the health insurance, they do all that stuff so it doesn’t affect my personnel budget. I just pay them a management fee. They cover it. Obviously there’s operation costs, but again, that’s where the investors have to get us some starting capital to get to that point. Garet (Enrichment Director Fitzpatrick) and I have talked to, I don’t know, five, six golf courses. We have an idea what some might come in to cover that. So I think long term, it’s going to self fund itself. But there is some cautionary stuff early on, that if we can package these two together, I think it’s going to work out really nice.
“The investors want it to be a Sand Creek Station Golf Course (a Kemper-Sports managed course in Newton), so they’re gonna have to pay for that. I’m not trying to put their feet to the fire, but we can’t do it. What we do well, is operate them. The other thing I want to touch base on is we do have partnerships. I mean, the school district (USD 428) is going to partner. The college is going to partner. The city, Economic Development. I think there’s a lot of support in this to make it work. So I think by us taking the lead on some of this, it can be good. The other thing I’d like to say is, any money that investors, or anybody else puts to this, we are separating this in our budget lines. When it comes due next month, when I do budget stuff, we’re separating that because I don’t want overages so people think that we’re going to put that in our general fund and just eat that. That’s going to be separated. It’s two totally separate things. Anything that gets profitable can go back to the course for other capital improvements later on.”
“I think it has incredible potential to benefit the community, which, that’s the mission of the Rec,” board member Amanda Staab said.
Board member Randy Goering asked, “Down the road, assuming this all comes to be, the Rec’s risk or expense in this is just the annual management fee?” to which Umphres replied, “Yes. I can budget for it.”
Board President Jonathan Pike clarified the need for two motions.
We’ll do a preliminary motion,” he said. “Item 5.6 will be one motion regarding our interest in moving forward. And so that’s the public announcement that we are interested, but not committed. And that will make things more practical with the investors, and let them know that there’s something to do.”
Board member Chuey Loera made the motion, “I vote we move forward with looking into plans to accept the Stone Ridge Golf Course. Accepting the course will only be done if enough funding sources are met.”
Goering seconded the motion and it carried 5-0.
The next topic of discussion was hiring KemperSports for three months to put together a plan on everything that needs to be done to get the course back into playing shape. The cost for the three months would be $20,000 plus expenses not to exceed $5,000.
They will bring in several people to develop a plan on sprinklers, grass, the clubhouse, etc.
“They will draw it up, put an operating plan together, and then basically we’ll be able to just bounce everything off of them for three months,” Umphres said. “Basically it’s a three-month plan. Then we can decide if we even want to continue, or go straight into the management. If the money’s there, then we can roll right into that. They can start hiring some grounds. They can start hiring the sprinklers, that kind of stuff. Again, with this in general, we’re looking at donations coming through the Rec or the Rec Foundation. People can then start putting money towards that, and we can start accumulating that and getting some of these projects done — sprinklers and that kind of stuff — they’re talking about getting that done in this current calendar year. So hopefully Kemper is able to get us some information right away to where we can at least get that portion going. Because obviously, the water, the sprinklers and grass are the first things we need to get going. That’s the reason for kind of the rush on getting some sort of consultation fee or scope of project underway.”
Loera again took the lead and motioned to retain KemperSports as the consultant in the amount not to exceed $25,000. Newman quickly made the second and the motion carried 5-0.
If funding is secured, the golf course project would include looking into utilizing a management company to ensure the success on the course over many years. A timeline for construction and opening will be announced once financing is finalized. Interested investors should be aware that the GBRC Foundation is a 501(c)(3) entity and donations can be used strictly for this golf course.
