By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
The purchase of the 106-acre North Hills golf course, with all the fees, has been locked in at $5.35 million and Sherwood will lease it from the city’s public facilities board for $29,000 a month, according to a lease agreement the council approved at its meeting Monday night.
The money still has not been paid to the golf course owners, Club Properties, but it should be within the next week.
At the council meeting, all the aldermen and the mayor signed the necessary paperwork to put two lawsuits related to the golf course purchase behind them.
Alderman Sheila Sulcer told the council that the city’s advertising and promotion commission voted earlier this month to spend up to $100,000 for renovating the golf course clubhouse so it can be rented out as a meeting area.
Sonny Jannsen, the parks and recre ation director, told the council that he has had crews out bush-hogging the fairways. “It was almost a hay field out there,” he said. Jannsen added the owners have been very helpful in letting city crews on the property before ownership has actually been handed over to the city.
Both Jannsen and Mayor Virginia Hillman reminded the council and the chamber full of residents that there is a city cleanup of the North Hills golf course set for 8 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 6.
“It will run until about noon and we’ll cap things off with a lunch,” the mayor said. Jannsen said anybody was welcome to join in and if residents have rakes, shovels or wheelbarrows to bring those tools with them.
Volunteers will be cleaning out flower beds, spreading mulch, taking down nets at the tennis courts and hauling out trash from inside the clubhouse.
Lunch for the volunteer cleanup workers will include hot dogs and drinks, provided by the North Hills Neighborhood Association.
Other than refurbishing the clubhouse and keeping the grounds trimmed, the city has not made any decisions on what to do with the property. Some suggestions will come from a master parks study that is about 20-percent completed. “We’ll get a report once the study is 25 percent complete which should be towards the beginning of the year,” Jannsen said.
In other council business:
Aldermen agreed with the city’s planning commission and approved three rezoning requests. The council approved rezoning about seven acres of land off Hwy. 107 near Hatcher Road from R-1 (single-family homes) to C-4 (commercial), about three acres of land off Hwy. 107 and Hatcher Road from R-1 to R-3 (multi-family), and three lots in the Hatcher Oaks Additions from R-1 to R-2 (duplexes).
The council turned down an appeal by Ken Meckfessel to having the planning commission reconsider their denial of his request to rezone about 2.5 acres on Jacksonville Cut-Off near a daycare center.
