Duncan Golf to take over management of Carson City’s Eagle Valley Golf Course

Eagle Valley Golf Course has a new operator.

The Board of Supervisors on Thursday voted to select Duncan Golf Management to operate, maintain and manage the city’s golf course adjacent to Centennial Park.

The board directed staff to draft a five-year agreement.

The new vendor will begin operating the course in January, unless the current operator, Carson City Municipal Golf Corp., and Duncan Golf agree the new management company should take over sooner with the goal of keeping the course open throughout the transition.

The proposed terms of the agreement call for Duncan Golf to make an annual investment of $90,000 in new equipment that would be owned by the city.

Duncan Golf would lease the land from the city and keep revenue from course-related activities.

After three years, Duncan will contribute 10 percent of the course’s net operating income to a capital improvement fund that the city and the operator will confer and agree on how to spend.

“Eagle Valley has been a tremendous asset and we would like to get it back to what it should be,” said Tom Duncan, owner. “Private corporations have options that the city might not.”

Duncan Golf operates the Lakeridge and Wolf Run golf courses in Reno, and Dayton Valley Golf Club in Dayton.

The meeting room was full of people to hear the golf course item, but only three people spoke during public comment.

One spoke in opposition to awarding the contract to Duncan Golf and two spoke in support of it, including Jim Kepler, Eagle Valley’s former manager.

“Tom and I are close friends. He has the best golf course in Reno,” said Kepler. “(Eagle Valley) is a viable property.”

The course, which consists of two, 18-hole courses, was created for and is key to the city’s water reuse plan.

The course receives about 816 acre feet of effluent annually, or about 25 percent of effluent the city produces.

The board also approved a new process for selecting members of the Planning Commission and decided to implement the new process next year instead of waiting for term expirations.

Starting in 2018, the supervisors will each nominate a member which must be approved by the board and two members will remain in at-large positions that can be applied for by any registered voter of Carson City.

Supervisors from Ward 1 and 3 — Karen Abowd and Lori Bagwell — will each nominate a member for a one-year term because their terms expire next year.

Mayor Bob Crowell, and Brad Bonkowski and John Barrette — Ward 2 and 4 supervisors — will each nominate members for three years, the remainder of their terms. Two at-large members will also be chosen.

Nothing in the new process requires the supervisors to nominate existing members, but during discussion they said their goal wasn’t to replace anyone.

“My sense is we won’t knock somebody off,” said Crowell.

Barrette said it would be difficult to phase in the process, but he wanted to go on record he wouldn’t support replacing any current member whose term wasn’t expiring.

The meeting started off with public comment from Dave Dawley, Carson City assessor.

The state’s assessors and treasurers have been searching for new software to run their offices since their current provider, ADS, told them a year ago it would be closing down at the end of 2019.

The various county offices worked together and 12 of the 15 counties decided to go with one vendor. Carson City decided not to because the city didn’t like the terms of the proposed contract, said Dawley.

Instead, Carson City issued a new request for a proposal that Douglas and Lyon counties also signed onto and received two responses.

Dawley said he has concerns about the provider eventually chosen by the city and preferred the other vendor, which Washoe County is currently working with.

“I truly believe that Carson City is negotiating with the wrong company,” said Dawley.

After the meeting, Dawley said he made the public comment to get his objections on the record.

“But if we have to accept the vendor we’ll do the very best job we can do,” he said.