5-4-15 fdl county committees to discuss rolling meadows golf course

The future of the Fond du Lac County Rolling Meadows golf course is the topic of a joint meeting this week of two county committees.  The county finance and education, ag and recreation committees are meeting Thursday to discuss the issue.  County Board chairman Marty Farrell says the course has lost money for seven consecutive years including $256,000 last year.  “We want to maintain it but obviously the losses of the last couple years are unsustainable,”  Farrell told AM 1170 WFDL’s Between the Lines program.   Fond du Lac County Board supervisor Dean Will says he’s concerned about the course losing money, but also says he realizes it’s a quality of life issue as well.  “I felt that we need to have more discussion.  We need to look for a new vision for Rolling Meadows,”  Will told WFDL news.  “I think it would be premature to just sell it, that we would just abandon ship without giving it an opportunity to try to get it back on track.” Farrell says it appears the downturn started with the recession in 2008.  A comment was made at a recent county board meeting about the possibility of having to downsize or even close the course.  Farrell says as far as he’s concerned that’s not a part of the discussion right now.  Farrell says to date the county has loaned the course  $1.7 million to cover recent operating losses.