Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner agrees the community does not need eight publicly-owned golf courses. But, during GLT's Sound Ideas, Renner declined to advocate shutting down one or two city owned courses altogether.
"Frankly, I deal every day with bad decisions that were made, 5-10-20 years ago and have to clean up that mess," said Renner. "I'm in a situation frankly where I've got to move forward."
As for outsourcing management of city golf courses, Renner said that will not save the city much money. He said he also does not want the debate to continue because staff are worried about their jobs. Renner said in hindsight, the city should have charged developers who benefited from subdivisions around the golf courses more, or even asked them to pay part of ongoing operations.
Renner said he also has hopes the new operators of U. S. Cellular Coliseum will agree to take over booking at the Center for Performing Arts as well. He said that could save as much as $100,000. Officials with Iowa-based VenuWorks have said that issue is not a priority. Renner agreed it will take time.
"They're basically trying to make sure there are no glitches in the operation of the Coliseum, but possibly by the fall, I think they will be returning to that," said Renner.
Renner said he also looks forward to more openness from VenuWorks than was present under the previous vendor, Central Illinois Arena Management. Renner also noted that the firm's share of concessions is far less than that taken by Central Illinois Arena Management.
