Scott
Glenn has played a lot of golf courses. As a golfer at Missouri State, he's
played a lot of good ones, too. But he's particularly fond of one in
Lawrence--city-owned and operated Eagle Bend Golf Course, 1250 E. 902nd
Road.
Eagle Bend Golf Course in Lawrence has been open to the public since 1998. It features an 18-hole course, two driving ranges and a fully stocked pro shop with concessions.
"I've
played it a few times, and what a great place to play," Glenn said. "It's
really well run, well manicured. For a city-owned course, that's about as nice
as I've played on."
The
course, which will get just over $1.1 million from the city, or .76 percent of
the total city budget, in 2009, tries to pay that back with revenue from greens
fees, concessions and a fully stocked pro shop. After the budget for the golf
course dropped below $1 million in 2008, at $972,940, the budget for
expenditures jumped back to seven figures, where it has been since 2002
.
The city of Lawrence has given 0.76 percent of its alloted 2009 budget to the upkeep of Eagle Bend.
In
a letter to the mayor and city commissioners, city manager David Corliss said
that the golf course was expected to turn a profit in 2009.
"While
expenses and revenues are largely weather dependent, budgeted revenues are
projected to meet or exceed projected expenditures at the golf course in 2009,"
Corliss wrote.
John Morris, golf
course supervisor and head pro, said that the course has seen hardly any
fluctuation in business despite the economic downturn.
"The economy has
been, for the golf course, pretty much a non-issue," Morris said. "Our budget
is pretty much okay, but as far as parks and rec and money from the state,
that's a little different."
What some people
see as an all but disastrous undertaking--commenters on the Lawrence
Journal-World's Web site were calling for
the golf course to be shut down to save city funds as recently as February--may
actually be defying expectations.
Over the past five years, Eagle Bend has averaged a profit of $12,085. It's largest profit came in 2007, and it took its largest loss in 2004.
"The economic
stuff hasn't really hurt us because we're able to keep our prices so low,"
Morris said. "Then because of that, whatever budget we get--well, we tend to
make more than we spend."
The numbers from the last couple of years back
Morris' claim. In 2007, the most recent year which full records are available,
the golf course spent $765,414 of its budget of over $1 million, while their
total receipts equaled over $920,000. It was the second time in as many years
that the course has brought in a profit for the city--in 2006, Eagle Bend's
receipts totaled over $1 million.
The opposition to
the golf course is largely a product of the payment plan that started when the
course was built. The city will be paying bond and interest until 2016, and
Eagle Bend lost over $100,000 as recently as 2004.
"Man, it just seems like a waste of money," Wichita
junior Andrew Noyes said. "We've already got a couple 18-hole courses, then if
you want to play for cheap, just go to the Orchards. Why does the city have to
have its own golf course?"
Wichita junior Chet Compton, a patron of Eagle Bend Golf Course in Lawrence, speaks in favor of keeping the course up and running.
Noyes was referencing Lawrence Country Club, Alvamar Golf
Course and Alvamar Orchards, a nine-hole, par-31 course that costs $8 per
round.
"I like to golf, I just don't know why tax money should
go to the upkeep of some course that I then have to pay to play on," Noyes
said. "I'd rather just pony up a little extra to play Alvamar."
Ernie
Shaw, interim director of the Parks & Recreation Department, preached
patience, however.
"That course is
making close to a million bucks every year. In 2006, we made money even with
bond and interest," Shaw said. "Depending on the year and depending on the
weather, because weather obviously plays such a big role, golf can be a very
lucrative undertaking. It makes more money than any single program because it
can generate its own revenue."
Eagle Bend produces its own revenue mostly through greens fees and its two driving ranges, one of which is shown here. A bucket of balls costs $3.50, $7 or $10.50, depending on the size.
Shaw said he
believes the golf course is unfairly singled out in terms of putting it on the
chopping block.
"I have no idea
why people pick golf out over anything else, but it sure seems like they do,"
Shaw said. "I think people feel like golf, because of country clubs, is an
elite sport only for the wealthy. But that's not what public golf is. We have
golf lessons just like we have little league and swimming lessons and public
parks."
That service will
be around for a little while longer--even with opposition from the public. When
proposed budget cuts were presented to city commissioners in January, closing
Eagle Bend was not even an option.
By Tim Dwyer on April 10, 2009 12:34 AM
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Kansas freshman Lee Ridenhour
stood, all 6-foot-3, 200 pounds of him, on the Hoglund Ballpark mound. His
curly brown hair was tucked, as always, beneath his red, white and blue Kansas
baseball hat. He looked in to take a sign from senior catcher Buck Afenir, and
nodded. Sixty feet away stood burly Texas third baseman Michael Torres, a preseason all-conference selection. Ridenhour cocked back his gifted right arm
and fired. Torres looked on as the radar gun flashed 93 and umpire Terry
Harrison let loose a shout--"Strike!"
Ahead in the count, Ridenhour
wasn't looking to give Torres anything to hit hard. A slider broke just out of
the zone and Torres held back a swing to take ball one. The count even,
Ridenhour went back to his dependable fastball. Torres unleashed a mighty
swing, but the ball glanced off his bat foul--strike two. Again ahead, Ridenhour
stuck with the fastball, this time painting the black of the outside corner of
the plate. Torres watched silently. The umpire didn't. "Strike three!"
Lee Ridenhour snaps off a breaking ball against North Dakota. It was his first start at Hoglund Ballpark and it came a week after his first win against Arkansas, a team now ranked in the top ten. Credit: Jeff Jacobsen / Kansas Athletics
The strikeout was part of a
performance that earned Kansas it's first series sweep of a team ranked No. 1
in the school's history--Ridenhour went 6.2 innings and allowed two earned runs.
The potential to silence a potent
offense like Texas' that got Ridenhour, who throws three pitches--fastball,
slider, changeup--at a high level, drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 2008
Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.
"I was actually pitching when I got drafted," Ridenhour said.
"So I was like, 'Dad, here's my phone in case--you know--if they call.' It was
unreal. All my life, growing up, playing baseball, that's what I wanted to do
was go play baseball."
It wasn't the last time the Twins
dialed that number. From June through August, Minnesota was making a push for
Ridenhour to sign with its organization, offering the 18-year-old from Shawnee
Mission West a $150,000 signing bonus and a full scholarship.
"Man, it was really tempting,"
Ridenhour said. "Just the idea of just playing baseball and not school--but then
I'd never really been away from home. What would I do? I'd get up and go from
eight to two, but then what would I do?"
So he asked around. He talked to
Tom Burkhart, his pitching coach since before his high school career who had
been drafted several times and told Ridenhour to make the leap, take a shot at
the pros. He asked Kevin Seitzer, who spent 12 years in the majors after
starring at Eastern Illinois University and now runs a training facility in the
Kansas City area. Seitzer advised caution, telling him to take the safe road
and head to school.
"I talked to as many people as I
could," Ridenhour said. "People that had gone to college, my pitching coach,
Kevin Seitzer, who I played with from, like, third grade to eighth grade. It
just came down to, we charted out for me, what's going to have more positives.
What's going to be better for me in the long run?"
He talked to his parents, too, of
course, and they were split on the idea, just like his coaches.
"My mom really wanted me to go to
school," Ridenhour said. "Then my dad was more, like, he wanted me to do what I
wanted to do. I think right now, talking to them, everyone is really glad that
I went to school."
Ridenhour understood that he had a
little maturing to do. That's why he kept talking to Kansas, where he committed
to play long before the draft, and pitching coach Ryan Graves.
"That's always the risk you take to
get the quality arms," Graves said about Ridenhour going pro. "But especially
with him being a Kansas kid, it's a risk you're willing to take. You know, the
draft is just really difficult to predict."
Graves stuck to it, not knowing if
things would work out the way he hoped, and went to games Ridenhour was
pitching, kept working the phones, talking to him and his family. Ridenhour
noticed.
"Honestly, I never really thought I
was going to come to KU," he said. "Then coach Graves was out to see almost all
my starts in high school and throughout the summer. Even when the draft came
around and I had already committed, he was still out there watching me pitch.
The commitment he showed to go and say, you know, 'We still want you.' It just
seemed like he really, really wanted me to come here."
Recruiting Ridenhour gave new
meaning to the words "last call" for the Jayhawks, though. Ridenhour was
standing in Graves' office when he noticed a missed call--with a Minnesota area
code.
"Even when I was moving in on
August 15, because that was the last day, I had a missed call from the Twins
because I just didn't feel it ring. So I checked my phone and was like 'Hey,
kind of funny coach, I've got a missed call from the Twins.' So he told me to
call them back."
Graves remembers the incident well.
Lee Ridenhour and pitching coach Ryan Graves discuss the circumstances that led to Ridenhour's appearance on campus and the potential he has to take his game to the next level.
"Oh man, absolutely, that was
(nerve wracking)," Graves said. "Like we talked about it's hard to predict and
even though he's a 31st rounder, I mean, you're thinking the money
won't be great. But it just really depends on what happens in front of him and
they may end up having money for a guy like him."
Fortunately for the Jayhawks,
Ridenhour wasn't buying what the Twins had to sell. They told him that they
were waiting to see if their deal with another prospect fell through, but
Ridenhour wasn't ready to wait any longer. He told the Twins thanks, but no
thanks, and finally was sold on being a Jayhawk.
"When they said that, I was just
kind of the fall back, and that's fine, I have nothing against them," Ridenhour
said. "But I didn't want to be the second choice."
Freshman pitcher Lee Ridenhour delivers a fastball against Wichita State. Ridenhour throws three pitches: a fastball that hits the mid-90s, a slider that pitching coach Ryan Graves said may be his best pitch, and a changeup that has only recently been added to his arsenal. Credit: Jerry Wang / University Daily Kansan
It's worked out well for both the
Jayhawks and Ridenhour so far. Ridenhour won his first three starts of the
season to work his way into a coveted weekend rotation spot and earned a win in
the third and final game of the Jayhawks' historical sweep of No. 1 Texas.
"I thought his upside was
absolutely outstanding," Kansas coach Ritch Price said. "We thought that, if he
continued to grow and improve, then he could develop into an impact player.
Obviously, that's what he's already become. He has the ability to be a
legitimate Friday night starter in this conference--and those guys are special."
Ridenhour knows he has room to
improve as a pitcher, certainly, but he had to learn the hard way that he has
room to improve with the press. He told reporters after going eight scoreless
innings against Wichita State that he had, after being recruited by both
schools, chosen Kansas because Wichita State was "a program on the decline."
Not surprisingly, it found it's way
into the Wichita Eagle--and the Shockers
have no doubt circled their next game against Kansas on the schedule.
"Obviously that's a very
emotional game, a very emotional win for him, but there's some things that
shouldn't be said," Price said. "He gave them some things to put up on the
bulletin board. At the same time, you make mistakes and you grow from those.
I'm sure next time he's interviewed, and he'll be interviewed throughout his career,
he'll understand that."
Graves said not to judge him based
on one quote after an emotional game.
"He's a more humble, well-rounded
kid then, you know, some things he said would lead you to believe," Graves
said.
Ridenhour was much more toned down
talking about the differences between Kansas and Wichita State the second time
around--"I just felt more wanted here," he said--and it seems like he's starting
to show the maturation the coaches are asking for.
"I think that it was a better
choice for me to go to college," Ridenhour said. "It's giving me a chance to
really grow and mature. I don't know if I would have experienced the same thing
in professional."
Ridenhour said he does think about
how it might have gone had he decided to go pro, especially considering how
successful he has been early. It's a question that fellow freshman Zac Elgie
also has.
Freshman first baseman Zac Elgie, who joined Ridenhour both in the draft class of 2008 and the Jayhawk recruiting class of 2008, discusses his path to Kansas and the reception he received in his small hometown of Minot, N.D.
Elgie was also picked in the 2008
draft, in the twelfth round by the Oakland Athletics. He said he started to
wonder about what could have been when the Jayhawks took a road trip to play
Arizona State. The Royals were holding their spring training in the same city
the team was in and the collegians spent a little time with the big leaguers.
"There was a couple of guys who
said that they had never went to college," Elgie said. "So, of course it made
me think about, you know, what if I would not have gone to college?"
It's a question that neither
freshman has a definitive answer to. But Elgie and Ridenhour aren't too worried
about it right now.
"I'm having so much fun here and
we're playing amazing," Ridenhour said. "I mean, we just swept Texas, you know.
Unreal.
By Tim Dwyer on March 12, 2009 4:22 PM
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Despite recent budget cuts, kids are still enjoying the amenities of the Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence.
Emily Boeckman doesn't see a lot of money from her work with the Boys and Girls Club
of Lawrence. She makes, she says, about $24 on an average day of work. With
quickly depreciating funding from the government, though, Boeckman and other
group leaders for the club have started to cut into that amount in order to
make the experience enjoyable for the kids.
"A
lot of us group leaders don't like the idea of cutting down on activities,"
Boeckman said. "So we have been dipping into our own pockets to buy things for
the kids. It's really hard on the group leaders because we're taking money out
of our paychecks to ensure that the kids are still able to do as much as we
used to."
It is a nationwide phenomenon,
non-profit organizations losing funding, and the Boys and Girls Clubs of
America have certainly been a victim of the rule, rather than the exception.
"Our federal appropriation," Senior
Vice President of Government Relations for Boys and Girls Clubs of America
Kevin McCartney said, "has gone from $85 million in 2006 to only $40 million in
2008. The money we have been able to pass through to regional and local branches
has been cut by more than half. And that's across the board."
McCartney said that, on a national
level, clubs have had to cope with the dwindling funds both by raising more
money and spending it more judiciously.
The Boys and Girls Club of Lawrence provides both outdoor and indoor facilities for the kids to use.
"They've been doing more fundraising,"
he said. "They've also had to, unfortunately, reduce some hours and lay off
staff. They've been approaching it from both sides."
The Lawrence branch is one of those
that has seen government funding cut.
"It's unfortunate," said city
communications director Lisa Patterson. "But with the economy like it is, sacrifices
have to be made."
Janet Murphy, the executive
director of the Lawrence branch, said that, locally, the funding cut would
affect the number of people the group could help more than anything. It has become a
real problem for the organization, as kids cut will likely not be able to attend another
club, as the nearest is, according to Google Maps, 40 minutes away.
View Larger Map The roughly 200, according to Janet Murphy, children affected by the budget cuts will likely be unable to attend another location. These are the locations closest to Lawrence.
"We'll have to cut the number of
kids that we can serve," she said. "We're looking at reducing services to about
200 youth, which is about 10 percent of the budget."
While Murphy conceded that there
would be some drastic reductions, she also noted that the group was doing
everything in its power to receive funding from other sources. McCartney noted
that funding for the clubs also came from private funding and fundraising in
addition to city, county and state governments.
"There are a number of steps we're
taking based on the reductions," Murphy said. "We're working with the board on
our current fundraisers to figure out if and how we can grow them, and we're
looking at the extent to which we can reduce our spending without affecting the
members' experience."
The club provides kids with an opportunity to play pool, video games, foosball and a number of other activities.
That seems to be the overriding
goal for everyone involved. From McCartney at the national level all the way
down to local part-time employees like Boeckman, it seems to be paramount to
all the employees of the Boys and Girls Club to ensure that the kids they serve
do not go unattended to.
"Just yesterday I bought popcorn
and juice for my second grade kids while they watched a movie. It cost $10 and
I only make $24 on a typical workday. The Boys and Girls Club's budget cuts are
not only straining the club, but the group leader's wallets."
To counteract the amount she and
other group leaders have to spend while working with the kids, Boeckman said
they are scrounging for ways to save money.
Two children at the Boys and Girls Club play sword fight with Lincoln Logs they had been using to build small houses.
"A lot of us have opened up
accounts at the public library so we can get more books and movies for the kids
without having to spend any extra money," she said.
It's a small step, Boeckman
conceded, but small steps can be giant leaps.
By Tim Dwyer on March 9, 2009 3:01 PM
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It's always slower
in winter. Runways freeze over. Weather doesn't allow for flying, planes don't
allow for flying, pilots don't allow for flying. This year, though, there's a
new aspect in play. There's just not enough money for flying. As the failing economy
ravages American industries, so too falls private aviation.
"We're in the
winter months, so we'd see a taper off anyways." Lloyd Hetrick, owner of
Hetrick Air Services, said. "But I'm sure that it's not just the weather this
time around."
Hetrick was
discussing the dramatic drop off in traffic that his business has seen. Hetrick
Air Services is the fixed base operator of Lawrence Municipal Airport, meaning
that, simply put, it runs the airport. According to the FAA 5010 Master Record,
Lawrence Municipal averages about 100
flight operations--either a take off or landing--daily.
"On a good day, a
game day, we might see 100 airplanes come in and out of the airport," Hetrick
said. "With the flight school, on weekends we could have three or four training
airplanes running, and through that we might do 200 operations. Some days
though, you'll end up, be it because of weather or whatever, that you won't
have a single plane land."
The average number
of operations has remained stable even in the current economic climate because
of the flight school based out of the airport. Even if a plane only does a
touch-and-go--a common training exercise in which the plane will land on the
runway, taxi and take off again without the pilot and teacher ever leaving the
plane--it will still count as two operations. The number of operations is
comparable to other local airports. Colonel James Jabara Airport in Wichita,
Kan., sees a bit more traffic on a daily basis, largely thanks to Wichita's housing
of several business aviation companies, including Hawker Beechcraft and Cessna. On the other side of the coin, Manhattan Regional Airport doesn't see quite as much general aviation traffic as Lawrence Municipal.
Mike Dwyer, a
flight instructor with Monarch Air in Dallas, one of the largest flight schools
in the country, said that he still runs a similar number of operations, but with
fewer students.
"It's been a
pretty noticeable drop-off," he said. "I used to go straight from de-briefing
one student to briefing another. I'd have night flying, cross-countries, all
that stuff. I still do, but it's more of the same guys. You do the same things,
but there's not a lot of new students."
Hetrick estimates
a similar effect on Lawrence's flight school, suggesting that they had seen
around a 20 percent drop off in enrollment.
Rick Bryant,
chairman of the Aviation Advisory Board at Lawrence Municipal, said that while
the interest in their flight school has stayed relatively stable, they have
seen a major decline in business jet traffic.
"Where we've seen
the largest decline in traffic since last fall is with business jets," Bryant
said. "The charters and business community have backed off significantly after
the Big Three automakers were blasted by congress for 'wasting' money by flying
on their corporate jets. Pure PR grandstanding by Congress. General aviation
has a $3 billion annual economic impact in the country, according to the
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association."
Hetrick said that
business jet traffic has indeed dwindled drastically with relation to their
other traffic. This is likely partially due to the decline of jet sales around
the globe. Textron, Inc., which owns Cessna Aviation, one of the largest
private aviation companies in the world, has seen a precipitous drop in its
stock prices over the last calendar year.
"Business has
definitely tapered off in all aspects, from the flight school to transit
traffic," Hetrick said. "I know for a fact that with the jet traffic the
economy has something to do with it. Transit traffic, jet traffic, the things
we've seen a major drop off in--it's been over 50 percent less than what it was
last year."
Bryant said that
despite the drop off in traffic, there are signs that it could go back up.
"On a brighter
note," Bryant said, "we have almost 40 individuals on a wating list to rent our
aircraft T-hangar units and continued interest in flight lessons."
He said that even
with the current state of the economy there is one thing that keeps people
coming in to the airport--Kansas athletics.
"Of course, when a
big KU basketball game occurs," he said, "it is not uncommon to see 12 to 15
business jets show up for the game.
