Vermont Standard
By Curt Peterson
Standard Correspondent
Killington — Green Mountain National Golf Course professional and General Manager David Soucy attended the Oct. 18 select board meeting when Town Manager Debbie Schwartz announced the club was paying the town $200,000 of the $360,000 the town had advanced as startup money when the club’s finances were separated into their own accounts.
“We had a pretty good year,” Soucy said.
Prior to January 2015 golf club expenses were paid directly from the general fund. When the town changed from a calendar year to a fiscal year spanning July 1 to June 30, the golf course, given its seasonal operations, did not adopt the fiscal system. So separate accounts were set up for GMNGC within the town’s books, and its finances remain on a calendar year basis.
The town owns the golf course, so, as select board chair Patty McGrath said, “It’s the town’s money, and the town always has possession of it. The club is just transferring funds from its account into the town’s general fund account.”
Each spring the club has to buy supplies for grounds keeping, its restaurant, the pro shop and maintenance department, in preparation for their upcoming season. These expenses had traditionally been paid directly from the general fund, but would now be funded from the club’s new account. The town had left $360,000 in the account for that purpose, and the payment transfer arrangement announced on Tuesday evening, according to Soucy, will leave enough for startup expenses next spring.
Selectman Chris Bianchi said, “Keeping the club’s books separate is a much cleaner way to handle it than the old system where the town paid the expenses.”
There are just 38 days until the Audi FIS World Cup skiing competition comes to Killington and Schwartz said a second “table top exercise” to discuss coordinating security and services is scheduled for Nov. 1, and that notes from the first session have been distributed. She and police chief Whit Montgomery plan to review them over the next few days.
Montgomery said he thinks at least 7,000 visitors will be involved in the event, which makes it an unusually large occasion for the town. And that would be in addition to the normal skiing and other winter sports participants who can swell the population from around 900 to well over 15,000 on a good weekend.
The chief reported on a three-day seminar he attended in Fort Lauderdale, Florida the first weekend in October. Sixty students from law enforcement and security organizations learned about event crowd management and liability issues,taught by experienced law enforcement people, judges and security experts and produced by Special Events Seminars, a San Diego firm with vast experience. The town sponsored Montgomery’s attendance with the World Cup event in mind.
“The course was very comprehensive and valuable,” Montgomery said. “The group has provided security and training for the National Football League, national elections and the Olympics.”
He said he learned a lot about making sure visitors feel Killington is a friendly place while still providing security.
“They taught us how to analyze a crowd — not only the number of people, but the type of people in the crowd, and how to recognize behavior that might indicate a potential suicide bomber, active shooter or sex offender,” he said.
The course also focused on avoiding liability or legal issues when restricting, searching or interacting with individuals and crowds.
Schwartz had been asked by the board to find out how other towns handled “grace periods” for almost-on-time tax payments. She said the Vermont League of Cities and Towns had done a survey including the topic, which was very handy.
“Of the 153 towns that responded to the survey,” she said, “only 7 allow any grace period at all, 134 reported they allow for no grace period, and 12 failed to answer the question either way.”
Killington currently allows a 10-day grace period during which tax payments may be made without incurring any interest charges. Schwartz made no recommendation regarding the grace period policy, saying she was just delivering the information she was asked to provide.
“Since we just shortened the time before a property is eligible for tax sale, I think we can live with the grace period a little bit longer,” McGrath said.
Comment: Where did the balance of $160,000 go? What I get from this is that the $360k was an operating loan which should have been paid back in full in the current year. It's not like GMNGC just opened.
I have always stated that the money borrowed from the general fund needs to have a cost associated to it even if its just imputed. If it is not recognized then we are not presented with the true operating results from GMNGC. Any other business would have that expense if it had to borrow money!
Vito
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