By KEVIN CHIRI
Slidell news bureau
SLIDELL – With a pending decision facing the Slidell City Council about whether to spend $1 million or more to purchase Pinewood Country Club, a new engineering report has added data which supports the buy.
City officials have been wrestling with the decision about buying the 96-acre Pinewood property since the longtime Slidell golf course and clubhouse hit on hard financial times. An initial asking price of $1.2 million was seen as the money needed to buy the entire operation, which included a host of retention ponds that have previously been used to improve drainage in the northeast region of the city.
Many council members have so far made it clear they do not support the idea of using city dollars to bail out a private business. But Councilman Bill Borchert has led the effort for Slidell to buy the land as a way to improve drainage for many homes in that region.
Additionally, if the clubhouse and golf course are leased to private companies the city could have their investment repaid in 10 to 15 years.
Slidell Mayor Freddy Drennan said he has been waiting for an engineering report that would confirm if the property could, in fact, be beneficial to drainage in that area. This week he released a report that he called “shocking” which showed there are over 200 homes in that area that are on the “repetitive loss” list—meaning they have flooded more than once from heavy rains.
“I had an idea there were some homes that still didn’t have good enough drainage, but when I saw that over 200 homes are listed with repetitive flooding problems I was truly shocked,” he said. “I’m still waiting for confirmation of how much the retention ponds could help us, but if it shows that we can make a significant impact on homeowners so they don’t flood any more than we need to find the money to buy the property.
“And common sense tells me the ponds and other work there would have to help,” he added.
The report from the city engineering department showed that 242 homes within only one mile of Pinewood Country Club have flooded more than once, with many having continual flooding problems simply from heavy rains.
“I experienced being in a home that flooded,” the mayor said. “And if you have gone through it one time you know how hard it is to deal with. It’s really a terrible thing to recover from and if we can help a significant number of people change that then we have to do it.”
The mayor did stop short of casting his 100 percent support in favor of purchasing Pinewood since he still is waiting for a final engineering report that would provide more detail on what work needs to be done and how significant the help would be from the retention ponds.
Slidell officials were certain in years past that the Pinewood retention ponds can improve flooding in the area as they partnered with the club ownership on three previous occasions to dig the ponds deeper and wider, while also improving the drainage canals going from the club to outlying subdivisions and residential areas. The city most recently spent $400,000 in 2009 to work with the Pinewood club for drainage work at that time.
Drennan has already proposed using $900,000 of $2.28 million in surplus money from the 2016 budget as a way to pay for most of the $1.2 million. However, many City Council members have stated emphatically they don’t want the city to buy Pinewood since it looks like they are only bailing out a troubled private business.
Borchert, after seeing the newest information, continued to lobby for support to buy the club.
“The timing is perfect to do this since we currently have over $80 million we already are able to use for roads and drainage,” he said. “I believe that if we pass this up now then we will miss the opportunity to ever do this again.”
Pinewood, which has operated in Slidell for over 50 years, reportedly owes approximately $800,000 to a local bank for loans, and also owes approximately $300,000 to club members and others for loans that were made to help keep the club operating. Now, the club is reportedly paying the interest only on the loan and may not be allowed to do that for much longer. Either the city will have to buy the club, or there are reports that private developers are interested in the large parcel of land in the city limits.
“I will continue to make one thing clear,” Drennan said. “I don’t want to be in the golf business. I don’t want to be in the restaurant business and I don’t want to run a clubhouse.
“But these numbers change everything about this and if the answer is ‘yes’ we can stop a lot of people from flooding again, then we should be obligated to use the city money to help them,” he said.
While some council members are arguing the city should use the supplemental money for other projects, especially more road work, Slidell has already been approved for over $80 million from FEMA to repair streets, drainage and water lines damaged from Hurricane Katrina. That work is already underway with the south side of Slidell targeted for most of those improvements.
Additionally, the city has another $12 million approved by voters through a bond issue that is also for roads and drainage.
“When you consider the money we have for infrastructure work it is a perfect time to be able to use some of the supplemental money for this,” Borchert added. “We’re talking about impacting many people with the retention ponds and work we could do to improve their drainage.”
The City Council is expected to consider the matter again at the Tuesday, Jan. 10 meeting.