CLEVELAND, Tenn. — The city-owned golf course will be closed for three months this summer while Dalton Pike, which divides the course, is widened.
And, since Waterville Golf Course will be closed anyway, the Cleveland City Council on Monday agreed to spend up to $135,000 to install a new irrigation system on the course.
But that approval came only after some intense discussions about the expense.
“Most cities don’t even have the luxury of having a city-owned golf course,” Councilwoman Bambi Hines said. “Most people view that as a luxury.”
The money is part of $1.3 million that the Tennessee Department of Transportation paid Cleveland for the rights of way across the golf course so Dalton Pike could be widened.
“It’s not as if we are digging into the city’s funds,” Councilman Avery Johnson said.
Ms. Hines and Councilmen George Poe and Richard Banks initially asked to put off the vote but that failed on a 3-3 tie, with Councilman Bill Estes absent.
Mr. Banks expressed concern that the city was spending money during a tight economy and just prior to the council’s budget retreat.
“There will be a lot of discussion about lack of funding,” he said.
Mr. Johnson and Councilmen David May and Bill Robertson supported the new irrigation system from the start. Some of the course’s greens must be moved for the road, and they said it made no sense to wait until the golf course’s own reworking is done to come back and tear things up for an irrigation system.
The sooner the irrigation system is in the ground, the sooner the course can reopen, Mr. Robertson said. Otherwise, he said, the summer youth golf program he has led for 20 years might be in jeopardy this year.
Jack Dooley, a new member of the city’s Golf Course Advisory Board, also told the council it would be a waste of time and money to wait to install the irrigation system.
During a break in Monday’s meeting, city staff members called pipe vendors, who agreed to sell irrigation pipe to the city as it is needed, with city crews doing the installation. Unused pipe can be returned, the council was told.
With that assurance, the council agreed to fund the irrigation system.
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