Kent’s Riverbend Golf Complex needs $400,000 for new irrigation well

The Kent City Council will consider whether to spend $400,000 next year for a new irrigation well at the Riverbend Golf Complex.

Parks Director Jeff Watling asked the council for money to replace or re-drill the well during an Oct. 28 budget workshop. He said Riverbend’s budget included nearly $150,000 this year to buy water from the city for irrigation and has averaged about $100,000 per year in water expenses in each of the last three years because the well is inoperable.

“It’s a one-time request and a key part of fixing our operating budget is addressing the well,” Watling said. “This is a budget request that will allow us to do the capital work needed to get our well back into a functional system that we can rely on for an irrigational system and not have to spend money every year on irrigation.

“If we spend about $150,000 a year on water, we could spend $400,000 to rebuild the well we’d get that back in a two-to-three-year time period.”

Funds for the well would come out of the Riverbend budget, which the city has set up as an enterprise fund, meaning it’s supposed to cover costs through revenue.

But the city-owned complex that includes an 18-hole course, a par 3 course, driving range and merchandise shop, faces a $2.6 million debt, capital investments of at least $6 million and operating deficits of about $300,000 per year.

City officials hope to sell the par 3 course next year to a residential and commercial developer to cover the debt as well as the capital improvements needed on the 18-hole course. The debt is owed to an interfund loan, money that the city borrowed from its water and fleet funds to help pay off the bond for the golf complex.

“It would be an additional hit to debt the first couple of years,” Watling said about paying for the new well. “If we sell the par 3 the proceeds from that sale would address paying back the debt.”

Watling said the well was dug in 1989 and there is plenty of water available. But the well no longer works properly because of problems with dirt around the pump and a low rate of flow.

“We’re hearing from water experts we either need to drill deeper or drill a new well,” Watling said.

Council President Dana Ralph said she has worries about adding to Riverbend’s large debt.

“It concerns me that we are adding to that,” Ralph said. “We’ve had a lot of conversations about how solid of ground we are on with having that loan out there without an in-place repayment. Yes, there’s potential (with the par 3 sale) but potential and having the money in your hand are two very different things. I would hate to see us adding to the debt and causing us problems down the road.”

Watling said the initial plan to fix the well was to request the money out of the general fund but with little money available there he changed the request to pay for the well out of the Riverbend fund.

“I know every year we’re spending $100,000 to $150,000 a year on water is making our operational budget that much more difficult and in all honesty is adding to the golf fund debt on an annual basis,” Watling said.

Ralph said she agreed the well needs to be fixed but has seen other cities have problems with debts in enterprise funds without solid repayment plans.