The Weyburn Golf Club will be honouring professional golfer Graham DeLaet, by dedicating a gate and the entrance road into the Club to him during a special charity tournament on July 27, and designing highway signage into the golf club marking it as
The Weyburn Golf Club will be honouring professional golfer Graham DeLaet, by dedicating a gate and the entrance road into the Club to him during a special charity tournament on July 27, and designing highway signage into the golf club marking it as the original home of DeLaet.
"The gate will be up prior to the tournament that will be taking place at the Club for the Hospital Foundation, and then we will have a dedication of 'Graham DeLaet Drive' during the morning of the tournament," explained Bill Rudachyk, business manager of the Golf Club. He had explained about the project at the Golf Club's annual general meeting on April 21.
"In addition to that, there will be signage up on Highway 39, where we enter to the Golf Club. It will include a big picture of Graham DeLaet, and it will indicate that the Weyburn Golf Course is the original home of the Professional Golf Association member," added Rudachyk.
DeLaet will be returning to the Weyburn Golf Course for the Ulterra Presents the Graham DeLaet Charity Golf Tournament for the Weyburn and District Hospital Foundation on July 27. A full day of activities for the fundraiser includes a public breakfast, a junior golf clinic with DeLaet, a 18-hole tournament with DeLaet taking the 10-hole tee shot for each team, a public supper, and live and silent auctions.
Also discussed at the annual general meeting, both Rudachyk and president Dave Rommann noted the successful progress of reducing the mortgage at the Golf Club. According to the financial statements, the mortgage went from $338,000 in 2009 to $273,000 in 2010.
Rommann noted that it was due to the efforts of the staff and volunteers that got them through a difficult year at the Golf Club, especially with delays in golfing events because of the wet season in 2010. "It turned out to be a very good year, and I am proud of what this Golf Club has accomplished in the last five years. We are now projecting we will be able to wipe our mortgage out in three to four years."
One of the keys to reducing the mortgage at the Golf Club is the number of capital projects that needs completed, and the board has developed a five-year capital expenditure plan. Projects include replacing the irrigation system on the back nine, replacing a furnace and air-conditioner system in the Pro Shop, replace a sewer disposal system, and improve the various holes.
Rommann addressed a key problem facing the Golf Club with moving forward with their capital projects, and talked about their taxation problem. "If it was just the RM of Weyburn and the Weyburn Golf Course dealing on this situation, we would have an agreement. But there are two other parties involved, and that is where the problem is."
Further discussion on the taxation issue took place later in the meeting, after a presentation was made by Ron Fellner, trustee for the RM of Weyburn. He detailed that a five-year tax agreement was established by the RM, the Golf Club and the former South Central School Division in 2004.
The Economic Development bylaw had saved the Golf Club a total of $161,667 in taxes. The RM contacted the school divisions in 2007 to establish another five-year Economic Development bylaw starting in 2010.
Both the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division and the Southeast Cornerstone School Division declined. In response, both the RM and City of Weyburn brought up the tax issue during their council meetings during 2009. After the City passed a bylaw to cover the school taxes of the Golf Club, the RM attempted to establish their own Economic Development bylaw without agreements of the school divisions.
Challenges were issued by both school divisions to the RM, questioning the validity of their bylaw. "We sought legal advice from our SARM (Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities) lawyer, and we were advised that it was not a valid bylaw without school division endorsement, and therefore we appealed the bylaw," explained Fellner. This meant that the Golf Club was taxed for the full portion from both the RM and the school divisions in 2010.
"We are one of the only golf courses in Saskatchewan that is community-owned that has to pay taxes," said Brian Bakken, consultant with the Golf Club. "Other courses have somehow come to an agreement with their city, or they are on regional or provincial parks, or on First Nations land. We can't find another golf course that is in the same situation that we are facing."
Board Members of the Golf Club will continue to work at the problem, to find a solution for their future operating.
The official starting date for the front nine holes at the course was May 2. No power carts will be allowed on the course during the soft opening.
A ladies banquet and fashion show has been set for Monday, May 2, and the first tournament of the year will be the men's night par-three steak night on Wednesday, May 11.
