City of Toccoa To Run Golf Course

Toccoa will operate the city-owned golf course as a city department and not lease out operations once it gets the course back up and running.

Monday, city commissioners voted unanimously to continue down that path.

The nine-hole, city-owned Pines Golf Course has been closed since late August when the previous operator told the city he could no longer operate it.

Toccoa Vice-Mayor Terry Carter made the motion to put the course back completely under the city.

“I move that we authorize the staff to prepare a budget for the rest of this fiscal year to get us through until June and to develop a staffing plan that the city could operate the golf course and also to prepare a schedule of the improvements and projects that will take place in order to re-open the course,” said Carter.

City commissioners had heard two other proposals besides the city operating it in recent weeks.

Toccoa City Commissioner Evan Hellenga said he feels full city control is the best option..

“I appreciate the effort of the two men that gave us the proposals,” said Hellenga. “They obviously spent a lot of time and effort. I would like to see the city take it over myself.”

Meanwhile, Toccoa Mayor Gail Fry said that the city running it as a department will be more cost-effective for the city government, while also allowing the city to better stay on top of maintenance and other issues.

Concerns were raised in at least one of the presentations made to the city about the feasibility of a nine-hole golf course.

Fry said she feels it is important for the course to re-open and operate once again.

“We realize that for the first year or so, it will not be money-making, but we go back to quality of life,” said Fry. “We think it is part of what the city needs. It will be a positive for our community.”

Toccoa City Manager Billy Morse said the city will now get to work on a specific plan, budget, and timeline for getting the course back open and operating the course.

Morse said the goal is to present that information to the city commission next month.

Back in September, a United States Golf Association official visited the course and told the city the greens would need to be re-done before the course could open.

Morse said that official also told the city the fairways and some other areas would require some work and that the city would have to look closely at the course’s irrigation system.

The city has expressed a desire to have the course back open for play sometime next summer.