Information Regarding Controversy Surrounding Dryden Golf Course
By Emerson Drake
We’ve been asked to make inquires about Dryden Golf Course. The origin of the course and concern about funding attached to it. The following is the response we received from the city. We will be scheduling time in the immediate future to peruse the mentioned documents.
We are extremely appreciative of the time and effort the City Clerk, Stephanie Lopez and her staff with a special mention to Cathi Erbe, have put in to help us with our information quest.
Mr. Drake,
Research to fulfill your public records request has been completed. All paperwork for the acquisition of the land for Dryden Golf Course has been gathered. Land was also obtained from Kenneth H. Durand and Gladys S. Durand, so these documents have been included. Documentation for this was very old and rather fragile and could not be scanned, so paper copies are available. You are welcome to look thru them, and only pay for the ones you want. If you take the entire stack, the total for 173 pages would be $17.30.
Federal funds were not used for the acquisition of the property. The only reference that could be found to connect Dryden Golf Course and federal funding was back in 1997 when there was a flood. Resolution 97-677 (A Resolution Authorizing Staff to Submit a Flood Disaster Relief Application to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for Disaster Relief Initiative Funds) contains an attachment that says “The City also hopes to receive an additional $587,096 FEMA reimbursement for damage done to the City-owned Dryden Golf Course”. Resolution 98-161 amended the annual budget to include the supplemental CDBG allocation for the HUD disaster relief program. The $650,426 that was awarded was the amount that was requested to be used for the residential parcels on the south side of Hillside Drive, and that’s where all the funds were applied.
There has been only one green fee increase, on July 1, 2004, where $1.00 per 18-hole round was to be dedicated to the golf fund reserve (not specifically Dryden) for capital improvements. The “transfer” of this dedicated capital money has since stopped because of the decrease in green fee revenues and their inability to cover operating expenses.
Eye On Modesto 