Dixon council commits $400,000 to keep Timber Creek Golf Course open

DIXON – The city is earmarking a $400,000 donation to help keep Timber Creek Golf Course from closing down.

Kreider Services, which serves more than 600 people with developmental disabilities each year, has been working on a public/private partnership in the hope of taking over Timber Creek.

The agency is raising more than $1 million for needed irrigation repairs to better maintain the greens with plans of employing 40 to 50 people with disabilities at the facility.

Kreider would become the new owner of Timber Creek after purchasing it for $1, basically making it a donation, from owners Ron Keith and his son, Brett.

The agreement would require Timber Creek to be maintained as a golf course for at least 20 years, Kreider Executive Director Jeff Stauter told the Dixon City Council Monday.

Plans also include setting up a large outdoor tent on the tennis courts to host events up to 500 people.

[ Kreider Services continues campaign to save Timber Creek Golf Course without county support ]

The main renovations would cost around $1.4 million to replace the irrigation system and pump house as well as dredge the pond and do work on the green and tee boxes. The drop ceiling in the dining room also needs repairs.

The current irrigation system is more than 50 years old and breaks down regularly. It also plugs up, leaks and doesn’t deliver adequate water to maintain the course.

The city has been approached several times over the years to help keep Timber Creek from closure, but officials weren’t interested in providing funds to keep it afloat, Mayor Li Arellano Jr. said. Kreider’s proposal is different from the rest and is the most thorough pitch to save the course.

Jestun Gatz, who owns four golf courses including Silver Ridge in Oregon, questioned the viability of the project, the need for a large event venue and what due diligence the city has done.

Having Timber Creek as a banquet venue is a big factor as it could be an economic driver for the community, which is slated to get two new hotels in the Interstate 88 corridor, Council member Mike Venier said.

Project investor Jim Marshall said the Sauk Valley population would be able to sustain the golf course, and that it would also look to bring in golfers from the western suburbs.

Gatz argued that the Sauk Valley is overpopulated with five golf courses; Emerald Hill, which is maintained by the Sterling Park District, has been operating at a loss for years. It looks to lose $274,650 this year compared to $202,700 last year, $241,000 the year before that and almost $150,000 the year before that.

Despite the other courses in the area, Timber Creek is the only one in Dixon, Venier said.

Technically, Timber Creek isn’t in city limits, but the $400,000 donation would come with requirements from the city including annexing into Dixon, Arellano said.

It would be more of a grant with expectations and strings attached rather than a simple donation.

The money would not be released until the requirements are ironed out and the project is able to move forward.

The project would benefit the quality of life for people in Dixon, and it’s a unique opportunity for the city to be the second golf course in the nation to be run by an organization based on helping people with disabilities, Council member Mary Oros said.

The first of its kind is in Herkimer, New York.

Kreider initially raised about $200,000 in private donations and received a $300,000 grant from the state.

Kreider approached the Lee County Board, but they were unable to secure a donation of $250,000.

The board voted down the request in August in a 10-11 vote. Kreider officials and supporters then approached the county’s finance and executive committees about reconsidering the request, and the board rejected the request to reconsider in a 11-12 vote on Sept. 22.

[ Historic Timber Creek Golf Course facing closure after failing to secure county funds ]

Stauter had said he didn’t think the project would move forward without the county’s support, but more private donors supported the project following the board’s decision.

The city donation would come from COVID-19 relief funds.

The city received about $2.2 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act dollars and put it toward paying fire and police salaries, which is an acceptable use for ARPA funds.

In turn, that freed city funds that would have gone to payroll to go toward different projects without having to go through the ARPA restrictions or reporting process.

Most was put in a COVID-19 relief fund, and $500,000 was placed in a community development fund.

One of the county’s previous criticisms for the donation was that the money could be spent on much more needed projects including infrastructure improvements such as road repairs.

Venier said making the donation wouldn’t short-change street work.

Arellano argued, however, that it would be $400,000 that now would not be spent on other projects.

“We can’t say it couldn’t be used for these things because it absolutely could be,” Arellano said.

Council member Dennis Considine said Arellano should have more empathy for the project, and Arellano said he doesn’t think a golf course is a matter of empathy.

Council member Chris Bishop said the project needs to be viable in the longer term to earn the donation, and he also suggested that the course waive the fees for Dixon High School golfers to practice there.

The council unanimously approved the donation subject to an agreement outlining expectations and requirements.

The project will keep a historic amenity open in Dixon, help generate revenue for Kreider and provide much needed jobs for people with disabilities, Stauter said.

After being closed down for a year, Timber Creek reopened in 2019 after the Keiths signed a lease agreement with Rick and Brenda Humphrey to help revive the facility after failing to find someone to buy it and keep it as a golf course.

The current lease ends Oct. 31.

Timber Creek includes the 18-hole golf course, a banquet center, Bogey’s Bar and Grill, an outdoor swimming pool and tennis courts.

The Keiths bought the former Dixon Country Club as it was going out of business on Feb. 1, 2007, for $1.7 million. At the time, membership had dwindled to less than 100.

They renamed it and changed it from a private to a semi-private club, opening it to the public for the first time since its inception in 1915.

They operated the course at a financial loss for years wanting to preserve it in the community and competed with the area’s municipal-run courses that can be subsidized by taxpayer dollars.

The land was originally donated by Charles Walgreen, and former President Ronald Reagan was a caddy.