Committee: Close MNGL for '13

The Red Wing City Council golf course committee will recommend Monday night that Mississippi National Golf Links not open this year.

This is despite a proposal by the citizen group e Red Wing Municipal Golf Corporation to run the course for five years.

“This recommendation is based on the following: the pending litigation, which creates uncertainty regarding whether revenue created at the course could be diverted to the bank; the undercapitalization of the RWMGC proposal; and the high cost of equipping the course,” committee members said in a document going to the council.

The city is in a lawsuit with Wendell Pittenger, who leased and operated the course until he closed it last fall.

The committee’s long-term recommendation, however, is to look at several options:

• entering into a five-year agreement with RWMGC starting immediately;

• selling the course (with restriction on use);

• entering into a management agreement with an outside party;

• leasing the course to an outside party for operation as a golf course;

• creating a sustainable community asset based on a public process to determine the use of the land and the structure of organization to operate.

The council will meet at 7 p.m. Monday in City Hall.

The Red Wing 2020 Executive Committee will hold a community forum about the course at 6 p.m. March 19 in the Sheldon Theatre.

Tags: red wing, city council, news, minnesota