CHICKASHA – The Municipal Authority closed last Friday on the $1.6 million purchase of the 70.5-acre Chickasha Golf and Country Club from Jimmy Crews of Ninnekah.
The CMA Board of Trustees approved the purchase agreement on May 19.
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.
The acquisition was financed from two sources of revenue, City Manager Jim Crosby said.
The lion’s share, $900,000, came from a quarter-cent sales tax that local voters previously approved for economic development; that levy was in effect for five years: April 1, 2006, through March 31, 2011. There’s still about $60,000 remaining in that fund “because we wanted to make sure we had enough left to cover any outstanding bills,” Crosby told Southwest Ledger.
The other $700,000 came from CMA reserves, Crosby said. “We have plenty of money” in the CMA account.
“I’d rather spend our money to buy the country club outright than to borrow the money and pay interest on it,” Crosby said. The City of Chickasha still has a 25% r eserve and 90-day cash reserve, he said.
Tom Rose, an Army veteran and former city councilman whose neighborhood backs up to the country club, spoke in support of the 18-hole golf course during a council meeting in May. Chickasha public schools and the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma both have golf teams, he noted.
In a related matter, the CMA authorized the Chamber of Commerce to use the golf course and clubhouse, located at 2900 S. 16th St., to host the 97th annual Washita Valley Golf Tournament July 3-6.
The Chamber “will keep a spreadsheet of the revenues and expenses for the tournament, and we will split the profit … with the City (50-50),” said Jim Cowan, president of the Chickasha Chamber. Mosley Insurance will provide coverage for the event, he said.