ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, June 3, 1996 TAG: 9606030044
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
PAYING AS much as $35,000 a year to baby-sit a capped landfill that is sitting idle is nobody's idea of good land use. So Salem has to do something with Mowles Spring Park.
But should it be turned into a municipal golf course?
Maybe - if the economics are right, and if the course is one of multiple uses that Salem residents could enjoy. Otherwise, turning the whole area into a park would be a nice alternative.
The 283-acre site, closed since 1993 when the city had to dig up the ground near its entrance to use in capping the landfill, is a rare tract of green space within a land-starved city. That makes it a valuable asset, whether Salem can actually make money with it or not.
Indeed, its potential value lies not so much in dollars as in the enjoyment that its owners, the taxpaying public, can get from it.
Making it over into a park, with hiking and biking trails and picnic facilities, would add to the city's maintenance costs, as outgoing Mayor Jim Taliaferro has noted. But the payoff for those amenities would be the recreation provided to Salem residents.
City Council is considering building a golf course on the land in hopes of creating a money-making operation that would at least offset the cost of maintaining the capped landfill. That idea is to get further study by an architect, who will be expected to pinpoint the cost "pretty much to the penny."
Voters may have forgiven their recently re-elected incumbents for the exploding cost of Salem's new minor-league baseball field, but surely they have not forgotten. There may be reason to worry the city could end up subsidizing a golf course, which only a fraction of Salem residents would use.
One way to improve the odds against such a prospect might be to develop the course only in a lease arrangement with a private company that would manage it.
If building, maintaining and operating a golf course would cost less than the revenue it would generate, it might make sense to add one to the city's already impressive array of sports assets.
But a larger point should be kept in mind: While governments should be frugal with tax money, their purpose is to provide needed services, not to generate profits. Good recreational facilities are not extravagant. They're necessary features of communities that offer residents a good quality of life.
Mowles Spring Park belongs to all the people of Salem, not just those who play golf. There may be enough acreage to accommodate a golf course and other recreational facilities. That should be a deciding factor, along with cost.
In deciding how to use the land, a resource made precious by its scarcity, City Council should assure that the entire community is served.
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