Harlingen's Tony Butler project costs jumping to $5.5 million

Apr. 22—HARLINGEN — After more than five years of planning and delays, officials are signing a contract launching a $5.5 million project aimed at transforming the Tony Butler Golf Course to help pull it out of a 10-year hole.

Now, city officials are returning to the Harlingen Community Improvement Board to request $375,500 more, which would set the project's total cost at $5.5 million.

Under the city's past commission, the improvement board had originally set aside $3.1 million to fund the project.

Then in January, amid supply chain materials' cost escalations, Mid America Golf and Landscape, a Lee's Summit, Mo., company, offered a $4.7 million construction bid.

By the time officials requested the improvement board squeeze its budget to tack an additional $2 million late last month, the company's bid had expired, Jeff Hart, the golf course's general manager, said April 21.

As a result, Mid America Golf and Landscape added $375,500 to its price tag, Assistant City Manager Craig Cook said.

After its biggest overhaul in decades, Hart's projecting the iconic 94-year-old golf course will break-even or turn a profit within three years.

Calling for a money-maker

When city commissioners approved the contract with Mid America Golf and Landscape earlier this week, they called on Hart to make the project "work" to draw more players to the course that's been running in the red for about 10 years.

"It is a huge undertaking for the city to do this," Mayor Norma Sepulveda told Hart during an April 19 meeting. "You have to do good by the people of Harlingen. That's what we're elected to do. That's why we're here — to make sure that we're being good stewards of taxpayer money and making sure that we are investing in a project that's going to be successful in the future."

Across town, many residents stand opposed to the project, Sepulveda said.

"I have gotten a lot of emails and phone calls and messages from individuals from the community. They're unhappy with spending money on the golf course," she said, noting officials are dipping into the improvement board's budget, funded through a one-eighth-cent sales tax, earmarked to finance so-called quality-of-life projects while making public service upgrades ineligible.

Sepulveda called on Hart to work to turn the golf course into a money-maker.

"We have to do it responsibly and need to know that you're maximizing profits and that there is going to be that revenue," she said. "So I think all possible avenues of revenue need to be revisited, even the snack bar, to make sure that you don't break-even — that you're making a profit on everything because you have so many people coming in. There's got to be a way to become profitable if the city is going to invest over $5 million into the golf course. We need to find a way to justify that to the rest of the community."

Big task

Planning to turn the golf course into a "tourist attraction," Sepulveda called on City Manager Gabriel Gonzalez to boost its marketing.

"We want the Tony Butler Golf Course to be the golf course of the Rio Grande Valley — and that's a big task. But I think we can do it," she said. "I intend this to be tourist attraction."

Meanwhile, Sepulveda told Hart he would have to fund any further upgrades through the golf course's revenue.

"If there are additional things that are going to be needed, you're going to have to make that profit to be able to buy those things," she said. "You're not going to be able to come over here and say, 'I need money for this and money for that.' If you ask for $5, I might frown. So sell hotdogs or burgers if that's what you've got to do."

'Make it work'

During discussion, Commissioner Ford Kinsley told Hart "to make it work."

"This is big money to me — big freaking money," he said. "All people are going to see is we gave (money) to the golf course. We still have potholes. We still have lights that don't work. We still have potential flooding. Man, if you get this (funding), you've got to make this freaking work. This baby's got to shine."

In response, Hart told Kinsley, "I will promise my life on it."

"I will do my best," he said.

Reviewing fees

Meanwhile, Sepulveda requested Hart give commissioners updates on the golf course.

"I think that it's important for us to stay accountable, and so I think with that comes transparency. And it would be great if you could keep us informed as well as the community," she said. "I'd like for you to provide the commission, or through the city manager, proposed fees, how you see those (being) increased so that you would have additional revenue. I'd like for you to continue to update the commission on the progress of the improvements that are being made."

'Golf destination'

Standing in front of a City Hall audience packed with golfers supporting the project, Hart told commissioners he projected the course would break-even or turn a profit within three years of the renovations.

"We have the opportunity to make a very, very good golf course a destination and that's the point of this whole project," he said. "This will greatly increase the amount of people who are coming to Harlingen to play golf.

It will bring in money for other businesses."

City to shutdown 18-hole course

As part of the project, officials are planning to close the golf course's 18-hole core on Sept. 11 to launch construction expected to be completed within six months.

Meanwhile, they plan to keep open the course's Executive Nine, the nine-hole short course that's a Winter Texan favorite.

During the six-month period, Hart projected the overall operation would lose about $700,000, while the short course would generate about $100,000.

Last year, the golf course drove in $897,000, while running up $1 million in expenses.

Revamping plans

For more than five years, city officials have been planning the project aimed at drawing more players to help the golf course pay for itself.

In April 2021, the city's past commission delayed the project to request new construction bids after commissioners rejected a lone $6.3 million bid, more than double the project's original $3.1 million budget amid soaring costs stemming from the supply chain crisis.

Since last year, Houston-based golf course architect Jeffrey D. Blume, whom the past commission hired for $217,000 to design the project, has worked to cut costs without paring down his vision to transform the course.

After months of work, officials revamped the proposed irrigation system, the project's cornerstone, to replace a 40-year-old network of leaking PVC piping.

"The irrigation system is shot. We have leaks everywhere. We have leaks almost everyday," Hart told commissioners. "The irrigation system is PVC pipe. We're by the arroyo, and we have an incredible amounts of land movement. The ground moves and it bends that pipe up and just destroys it."

The project

On the drawing board, Blume trimmed the number of irrigating sprinkler heads from 1,250 to 830, Hart said, adding each unit costs about $2,500.

The new irrigation system calls for about 14 miles of underground, high-density polyethylene piping ranging in dimensions from two to 16 inches, including 10 miles of 2-inch pipe, officials said.

Covered by a 20-year warranty, the new piping is "like a really, really thick garden hose," Hart said.

Meanwhile, a computerized central control system will operate the irrigation system.

Expanding sand-based greens

Much of the project is aimed at transforming the golf courses' greens, expanding them from about 3,000 to 6,000 square feet while installing a sand base, Hart said, adding the old course's greens are clay-based.

Meanwhile, officials are planning to boost the number of tee boxes from about three to five, he said.

As part of the project, he said, they're also planning to expand the course's water features.