TA and Selectmen slice Munro’s Unicorn golf course contract
Published on November 28th, 2001
STONEHAM, MA - Town Administrator David Berry ended Paul Munro’s 21 year career as manager of the Unicorn and Oaks Golf Courses last week.
Berry, who was appointed by a 5-0 vote of the Selectmen this summer, said he wanted to extend the contract but the Selectmen didn’t. The TA has total authority to extend the contract, but he serves at the mercy of the Selectmen. They voted him in, and they can vote him out.
Less than 12 hours after telling the open session of the Nov. 20 Selectmen’s meeting that Munro would have another year, Berry called the Unicorn Club House and told Munro that his contract would end this December.
“They felt so strongly, I thought, that’s what I better do,” Berry said. He said all five Selectmen told him they wanted to put the contract out to bid this year.
Speaking for the Unicorn Recreation Committee, whose members are appointed by the Selectmen, Maureen Houghton said the committee did not want to take a position. However, member Therese DiBlasi of Danby Road asked why Selectmen hadn’t notified the committee about the desire to change management.
Munro can bid on the job. Selectmen made it clear that he was welcome to do so. But Munro told the Board on Nov. 20 that he was looking to wind down his career gracefully, to work for one, maybe two more years and then retire. The contract was a three year contract with two optional, one-year extensions. The fourth year, the first one-year extension, was what Munro was looking for on Nov. 20. Instead he is planning a liquidation sale and breaking the news to employees.
“In some towns golf pros who have been on for years get a plaque or free golf for life,” Munro said. He wanted things to end differently.
“But I don’t have any personal axes to grind,” he added.
The debate
Selectmen also said the change was a business decision.
“If we can save 20, 30, 40 thousand dollars, especially with the economic situation, we should go out to bid now,” said Selectman Bob Sweeney.
Selectmen Darin Leahy has raised questions about declining revenue and declining attendance at the courses for the past several years.
Leahy made a presentation on Nov. 20 charting these figures. In the 1999 season 59,216 rounds were played at Unicorn, in 2000 55,809 rounds were played and in 2001 only 50,514 rounds were played. Revenue decreased from $784,026 in 1999 to $701,199 in 2001, even with a $1 per round fee increase in 2001. Leahy also quoted National Golf Association figures listing 22 million more rounds of golf in 2000 than 1999 nationwide. (The Oaks, a par three course is an odd creature in the world of golf, Munro and Selectmen agreed. Revenues and golf rounds have been historically low at this course, which serves as a teaching course but has gained few other loyal fans.)
Berry asked Leahy point blank, “Are you implying that if we get a new golf pro, revenue will go up.”
Leahy said no.
Selectman Cosmo Ciccarello said he was concerned about the declining rounds this past season.
Rick Arzillo, the grounds keeper who works for the town not Munro, told the Board that last year was the shortest season in his 16 years of experience due to bad weather.
“We’re down about five percent (in revenue), but other area courses (Hillview, Gannon) are down 15 percent,” Arzillo said.
Arzillo added that the “Tiger Woods spike” had come and gone. Looking at the figures Leahy got from the National Golf Association, the 70 million increase in golf rounds nationwide from 1996 to 1997 was followed by a 19 million round decline in 1998, a 36 million round increase in 1999 and a 22 million round increase in 2000.
The trend nationwide was still upwards while attendance in Stoneham declined, but Munro associate Jack Downs questioned the comparison.
“This is apples to oranges,” Downs said. He argued that the figures from the National Golf Association are not comparable to Stoneham because they include 18-hole courses and courses in parts of the country with 12 month seasons.
Selectman Mary Pecoraro was critical of the Stoneham courses, saying, “People come to Stoneham when they can’t get on anywhere else.” She said that large crowds, course conditions and a dress code that allows tank tops and dirty work clothes make Unicorn less than optimum.
Munro responded by saying that his course caters to many blue collar workers who can only fit rounds of golf into their lives right before or after shifting work schedules. The course doesn’t require advance tee times, or enforce a strict dress code.
Seniors are his best customers, and most of them choose not to take carts. Golf is great exercise, even if they’re moving slowly. Representatives of two senior citizen leagues were present Nov. 20 to ask the town to extend Munro’s contract.
“We can do things to make it better, but I thought you wanted more golfers,” Munro said.
Munro also said he had ideas for improving the courses, such as moving sand traps, but he told Selectmen that he needed their cooperation and support because the town controls the grounds.
Out to bid in a hurry
Town officials must now figure out what they want the new golf course management contract to look like. Berry wanted six to eight months to make the change. He’ll get less than two.
“It’s not much time to play with,” Berry said.
State law requires the town to advertise for 30 days. Then officials have to look at the bids, choose one, and negotiate a contract, which will take at least a week. The new manager should be in place by late February to prepare for the beginning of the golf season, weather permitting, in March.
Leahy has mentioned an incentive based contract in which the manager’s take is tied to how many golfers he brings to the course, but exactly how this will be done or whether anyone will be interested in such a deal is unknown.
Although Munro will not bid the contract himself, he said he has not ruled out working with someone else.
Federal law oddity
Richard Corbett of William Street said that when the town took over the golf course property 30 years ago under a federal grant for recreation, the agreement said the town couldn’t use the course as a revenue source.
“That’s illegal, but that’s OK,” Ciccarello joked. By this he means that the federal government has let local communities use golf course revenue as long as recreational use has been maintained.
Selectmen and the Finance Committee could not agree at the Nov. 20 meeting whether the course is the third, fourth or fifth largest source of town revenue.
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