Vail Daily letter: Million-dollar fiasco
The Rec District took over the golf pro shop a few years ago to enter into the clothing business in order to finance a new clubhouse. After that didn’t meet expectations, we all know they have now teamed up with the town of Vail to try a wedding venue near I-70 to compete against private businesses. Unfortunately for both golfers and neighbors, their grandiose plan requires the destruction of one of our golf holes; maybe the best one. A questionable “consultant” was hired to mouth their “talking points,” finally coming up with ubiquitous “safety” after seeing the public outcry at the town of Vail meetings. Of course, it was not golfer safety after 30 years, but wedding guests that mattered! Any golfer safety issue was easily solved this year with low compression balls and rear tee boxes on the driving range.
All this is history and now the bulldozers have arrived! And they are constructing the new green for the shortened 18th hole precisely where the few errant range balls have always fallen! It could not be more exact! So much for high-paid course consultants! Instead of a few seconds walking by the “danger zone” in the fairway as before, our golfers will now spend several minutes putting out in this area! But have no fear, the wedding guests wandering the old golf course will be safe.
Ask the town of Vail officials about this and the reply now is, “No comment due to impending lawsuits”!
Hopefully in the future this million-dollar fiasco will be reversed by more knowledgable elected representatives and we will regain our recreational facilities.
Rol Hamelin
