Norton proposes private investment for District’s public golf courses
By: Hayley Peterson
Special to The Examiner
June 16, 2009
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has introduced a bill that would open up the District’s three public golf courses to investments from private contractors who would revamp the aging facilities.
“The courses have been in hands of the federal government for more than 80 years, and they have allowed them to deteriorate,” said Norton, who introduced the bill to the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
“Governments are money-hungry establishments” and are “not very good at nourishing golf courses,” which require hefty investments but provide only moderate returns over time, Norton told The Examiner.
But contractors would be champing at the bit to get “exclusive rights” to the links, she said.
“Some golf developer would see these courses for what they are — undervalued properties that don’t have [modern] clubhouses,” she added. -
Under a contractual agreement, the developer chosen for the job “would have to create a state-of-the-art golf course at East Potomac and use funds to improve Langston and Rock Creek,” Norton said.
But 70-year-old Langston might not be able to wait for profits to trickle down.
“Langston was built on a trash dump,” said Langston general manager Jimmy Garvin. “Trash has begun seeping up through the ground — like rubber tires.”
Langston was the only golf course in D.C. available to blacks when it opened in 1939.
Since then, Langston and the city’s two other public courses have provided affordable access to a sport traditionally limited to the wealthy.
Langston needs paved cart paths and a new irrigation system, Garvin said.
“Langston, at one point, was scheduled to be closed because it wasn’t expected to pull in any revenue,” said D.C. Councilman Harry Thomas Jr.
At Hains Point in East Potomac Park, the trouble was on the greens. A government contractor scorched 36 putting greens after mistaking herbicide for fertilizer, The Examiner reported in July 2007.
Garvin, however, is optimistic about Norton’s bill.
He said Norton introduced a similar act in October 2007, but “the Republican administration didn’t take a serious look [at it].”
Norton’s 2009 bill will have a better chance in a Democratic administration, he said, “with a president who understands and plays the game of golf — and is an African-American — that understands the importance Langston has for the community.”
