The Chickasha Municipal Authority voted to buy the 70.5-acre Golf and Country Club from Jimmy Crews of Ninnekah for $1.6 million.
The purchase includes associated items such as 31 golf carts, power tools, 16 tables and 100 banquet chairs, a tractor and a utility vehicle, two utility trailers, a tiller, and yard maintenance equipment such as mowers, edgers and blowers.
After a 36-minute closeddoor executive session, Councilors Kim Irving, Lisa Hatchett, Kea Ginn, Georgianne Hebblethwaite, Erica Alexander, Clark Southard, and Mayor Zach Grayson voted aye on the proposal. Councilmen John Smith and Charlie Burruss voted nay.
“I could not justify spending $1.6 million on a golf course when the taxpayers I represent are more concerned about streets, water and town cleanliness,” Smith told Southwest Ledger. “I am happy that Chickasha will have a golf course. But my vote isn’t about me or my preference; it’s about the citizens I was elected to represent and being a good steward of their tax dollars.”
Subsequently the council also agreed to pay $9,428 and applicable utility bills “for the interim maintenance and preservation” of the property at 2900 S. 16th St. “to cover the period prior to closing.”
Army veteran and former city councilman Tom Rose, whose neighborhood backs up to the country club, spoke in support of the 18-hole golf course. Chickasha public schools and the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma both have golf teams, he noted.
Despite reports to the contrary, golf “is not a dying sport,” Rose said. “What we have to do is make it attractive and reasonable enough for people to want to come and play” on Chickasha’s golf course. “There’s hope for golf. We just have to find the right solution.”
The country club’s golf course “is a plus to our community” he said. “It would be a great loss” if it shut down.
Also, the country club has traditionally hosted the Washita Valley Golf Tournament, Oklahoma’s oldest golf invitational, and the 97th annual tournament is slated for July 4-6.
Mayor Grayson and City Manager Jim Crosby huddled May 21 “trying to figure out how to put on the Washita Valley Golf Tournament” again this year. “We want to keep it going until we can lease out operations of the golf course,” Grayson told the Ledger. “We’d hate to see that tradition die.”