Charles City Parks & Rec Board looking at next year priorities

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Charles City Parks and Recreation Board priorities for the coming fiscal year could include upkeep for Wildwood Golf Course, because it’s one of the few park facilities that pays for itself, and possibly expanding courts for one of the currently most popular activities – pickleball.

The board began work on budget priorities at its monthly meeting last week, both for the money that the board has to spend and on items to seek City Council support on for additional funding.

The appointed seven-member Parks & Rec Board provides guidance on priorities and decides how to spend about $55,000 to $65,000 it gets annually as its share of the city hotel/motel tax, as well as other funds it gets through fund-raising or donations.

Department of Parks and Recreation Director Tyler Mitchell said the nine-hole Wildwood Golf Course made money in 2024, bringing in $25,000 more this year than last year in memberships, cart rentals, and sales in the clubhouse including beer and liquor, food and in the pro shop.

“Wildwood had an extremely good year,” Mitchell said. “It was insanely busy.”

Annual memberships increased from 231 to 273, although green fees were down a little, likely because with more memberships the course was busier and some people who may have wanted to golf just for a day went elsewhere, he said.

The course brought in $230,000 this year, compared with $205,000 last year. Those numbers are income, and don’t account for increased costs, Mitchell said, such as the increased costs for beer, liquor and food since they sold more.

The front of the Wildwood clubhouse looks good, after money was donated by club members and others to paint it, and next year they’ll look at painting the rest of it, he said.

The physical condition of the clubhouse is still an ongoing concern, and Mitchell said one of the considerations now is there is no reliable air-conditioning in the clubhouse or the bar area. The air-conditioners have been repaired as often as possible and are all past warranty and past life expectancy, Mitchell said.

“I think we need to definitely look at AC, especially with how much the golf course is used. And our ballroom was rented out a ton.”

Price for two new AC units in the ballroom would be about $7,000 to $9,000, and about the same for the bar area, he said.

He also said there is a waiting list for golf cart storage shed rental, and with a plan to go from the current 12 rental carts available to 16, even more of the sheds will be used by the golf course’s own carts.

Mitchell said he and Course Manager Joel Bruner had discussed the possibility of getting a pole-framed building such as a Morton Building that can be used to store course equipment and machinery, and store rental carts to free up the cart sheds for lease.

“It doesn’t have to be insulated, doesn’t have to be heated, doesn’t have to be cooled, but it’s just a storage building. Then it opens up 9-10 sheds that we can rent out every year for more revenue,” he said.

Prompted by a suggestion from Mayor Dean Andrews, the board discussed the possibility of using the construction students at the NIACC Career Center to build sheds or do other work on city Parks & Rec facilities, and board members agreed it was worth getting more information on what might be possible.

Other concerns Mitchell mentioned was the need for a four-wheel-drive pickup that a snow plow can be mounted on, because the truck currently being used is “100% shot.”

Mitchell said he’d take any four-wheel drive truck “that runs.”

Mitchell also said there is a concern that the roof at Westwood park is in extremely poor shape, threatening the restrooms there.

Overarching the planning and discussions on priorities is the need to finish a master park plan, to provide guidance on priorities so the board can be proactive rather than reactive, Mitchell said.

The board members have given their individual priority ratings to a long list of potential projects and goals, and Mitchell suggested that a professional planner could help pull everything together.

“I know it’s been thrown out there. It’s a lot of money to do this, but we’ve kind of gotten this far, and how do we break it down from here?” Mitchell asked. “Are we going to spend another three years trying to put a Master Park plan together, or do we hire someone who’s an expert to come in and do it where you guys get all the say in the world, but they help facilitate it, put it together?”

Cost for professional help developing a master park plan could be $30,000 to $40,000, he said, prompting Parks & Rec Board Chair Jeff Otto to say that with the board’s limited budget, that would be money that it immediately wouldn’t have available to do any projects.

Mitchell and Mayor Andrews suggested that this might be an expense that the board could ask the City Council for help funding.

Phoebe Pittman, a City Council member who is the liaison to the Parks & Rec Board, said a master park plan could help the board spend its money more effectively.

“I think it would be worth asking (the council), because I think in the end it might even end up saving us money, so we’re not scrambling around trying to fix things when they suddenly go bad. We can start to identify in advance like we’re going to fix it before the roof falls in.”

In talking about other priorities, Andrews and some of the board members mentioned pickleball courts and the need for additional facilities.

Mitchell and Andrews said the current two pickleball courts at Sportsmen’s Park could be reconfigured with part of the basketball court area to be turned into four pickleball courts and still leave three of the basketball baskets.