Community Corner
Suneagles Golf Course Should Reopen Next Week. For Real This Time.
Golf course manager says he is "optimistic" about an opening next week and that rates will be different in structure, but overall still a good deal.
With a signed contract in hand, President Stephen Rice said his grounds crew is on the job at with the intent to open sometime next week.
Rice said the grounds crew is made up of new hires and employees of the other courses his firm operates.
The crew will have its work cut out for it with a course that has not been maintained by the Army for more than a week. The clean-up work, Rice said, will take a few days to get the course to playable condition.
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"It's not as easy as cutting your front lawn and bagging it up," he told Patch this week.
When players return to Suneagles next week they will notice a new fee structure. Where there were once 6 categories of players, there will now be three:
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- active military
- retired military
- all others
There will still be daily and membership rates but they will appear different than under the Army's operation.
Atlantic Golf is contractually obligated to keep rates for 2011 at current levels and is allowed an increase of fees of up to 20 percent in 2012. However, since the new memberships will run from Oct. 1, 2011 to Sept. 30, 2012, the rates will be what Rice calls a "hybrid."
Rice said that he and Harry Leonard, president of Atlantic Golf, are still fine tuning the fee structure and were not ready to announce the exact fees yet.
Rice did say that the fee structure would still remain, "way below market rates, especially on the daily side, far below other public courses and the county."
The golf course will continued to be owned by the Army, who has given a no cost lease to the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA). Atlantic Golf will pay redevelopers between $5,000 and $11,000 per month for the 12 months of its contract. In the meantime, redevelopers are looking for a buyer for the course.
FMERA's Executive Director Bruce Steadman said a request for proposals on the property will be issued in the near future.
Check back with Patch next week for a firm reopening date for Suneagles.
