02-29-16 Special Elbel Committee Minutes

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floristic quality assessment. Also, she worries that without knowing what we have, it's almost impossible to set lease conditions that would protect what we have. She also requested that they take as much time as they need. Chris Cobb, 215 E. Pokagon Street, South Bend, thanked the committee for initiating this process. Mr. Cobb was hoping to get more information about the property itself and the relationship of the wetlands to the rest of the property in terms of ownership, and the status of Mud Lake in terms of public access. If environmental protection or multi -uses are to go forward, that's going to hinge on the wetlands being engaged with in an appropriate way. He believes that more digging must be done to provide clarity about where the city's responsibilities are and what kind of initiatives would have to be taken to establish appropriate protections that are really needed. He believes that the city could take actions as a public owner of land fronting on Mud Lake that would lead to its classification as a public access body of water. Mr. Cobb asked would be the advantages and disadvantages of changing the status of Mud Lake. Marsha Kizer, Andrea Court, Mishawaka, is the President of the Women's (18) Eighteen Hole League at Elbel. She doesn't understand why Elbel is singled out. Golf is increasing, it is coming back since the recession, which affected golf courses. Elbel is one of the most woman- friendly golf courses she knows of. TJ and his staff are more than helpful when anything comes up. The amenities are better than Erskine. She was raised on Erskin, but fell in love with Elbel. Seniors are enjoying the golf courses, and 10,000 baby boomers retire every day. Their league increased by twenty -two (22) percent last year. They are hopeful that Elbe] will remain a golf course and a city park. They go there for the beauty of the course and to have fun. Laura Fuderer, 18485 Garwood Court South Bend 46637 wanted to clarify what Matt Cielen and Dan Brazo forgot to mention, which is that Audubon International had absolutely no relation to the International Audubon Society of which the South Bend /Elkhart Audubon Society is a chapter. Sally Durengowski, 17888 Amberwood Lane, South Bend, mentioned that the season pass rounds that were included in the 2015 financials packet were not included in the comparative packet, so it is missing 6,629 rounds. She would like to get more information on the expense side regarding staff costs, shared administration, non - reverting funds, and any other funds within the golf budget as a whole, Elbel's budget, or in the park's budget. We need to have robust conversation about this enterprise as a business operation. We need to get past the municipality mentality. Terry Niemier, 3575 W. Bertrand Road, Niles MI, lives very close to Elbel and wanted to throw out ideas about how to move forward with Elbel. She asked if it is a possibility to turn Elbel into a nine (9) hole course and diversify the rest to take some of the strain off of the budget. She would welcome the opportunity to actually present an idea. Councilmember White thanked everyone who presented and attended. She indicated that moving forward, the commission will have to focus on looking at the financial aspects in regards to the actual expenses, capital, operating costs, any shared administrative costs, and also the number of users that we need to have. We need to get a good sense of the expenditures and what we need from a revenue perspective, some of the legal issues surrounding ownership and what that will entail, and what studies we believe that we will need to move forward with our discussions. The framing of the next meeting will come from the minutes of this meeting. Councilmember Kelly believes that one of the most important issues is ownership, and clearing up the question on what access we even have before we begin formulating ideas and plans. 8