Time will tell if significant cuts to membership rates at Prairie View Golf Links will generate additional revenue.
The fee decreases, though, are definitely worth trying.
In a 4-1 vote last week, the Worthington City Council approved with the lower rates recommended by the Golf Advisory Board. The action came near the end of another year of fiscal struggles for the municipally owned golf course -- though a sloppy spring weatherwise and an extended period of road construction didn't help.
Prairie View Golf Links has not (pardon the pun) been raking in the green for the past several years, so it seems only natural that city council members chose to try something different. And the rates are different, indeed: For instance, an "early bird" family fee for 2010 will now cost $375 plus tax (compared to $685 in 2009), and new rates for folks falling into a newly created senior category will be as low as $250.
An online poll on www.dglobe.com found a fair degree of cynicism as to whether the new fees will make a difference. As of mid-Tuesday afternoon, exactly half of poll respondents had chosen the option "little or no difference" when answering about what effect the lower rates at Prairie View would have. (The choice "significant" had 19.6 percent, while the choice "some" had 30.7 percent.)
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But, even though there are some people who think the low rates won't help, they're a better option than doing nothing. And if these rates indeed don't make a difference, the city may finally need to make an even tougher decision about the course's future -- for the benefit of all of us taxpayers. out there.
