City council granted a one-year extension for the contract to manage the Pine Valley Golf Centre on Monday night.
The current five-year contract was set to expire at the end of this year and manager Keith Good had asked for a three-to-five-year extension to justify capital investments at the course and to give staff more time to work on the core services reivew.
City recreation and cultural services manager Brad Beckett had recommended a one-year extension, saying it would be acceptable to Good but would also likely mean only minimal capital investment.
However, three-to-five years was still too long in his opinion.
Beckett noted that under the current contract, any major capital investment would be at the city's cost and development of a driving range, clubhouse upgrades, tree planting, netting, fencing and a new irrigation system will cost $1.1 million.
"Typically, a term this long would be considered under a new request for proposals that might reflect different financial considerations and operating conditions," Beckett said in a report to council.
Council voted 8-1 in favour of the one-year option, agreeing it was a good compromise between the three-to-five year extension and none at all, which Beckett suggested would impose a time crunch if council decided to issue an extension once the core review is completed in late October.
Coun. Dave Wilbur was the lone councillor to vote against. Wilbur said he favoured no extension.
"We're in the midst of doing a core review and any commitment more than it has to be, to me, is counterintuitive," Wilbur said.
Allowing a three-to-five-year extension was "completely off the table," Wilbur said and disagreed with Beckett's concern about the possibility of a late-date extension, saying there would still be plenty of time until golf starts up again in the spring.
"Dealing with it on the fly at this particular point in time didn't have very much upside and certainly reduced our options," Wilbur said.
