This could be the year that the Lake Wilderness Golf Course breaks even.

Although it is forecasted to require a $44,000 subsidy from the city of Maple Valley, Finance Director Tony McCarthy stated that, given the right conditions, that subsidy might not be needed.

According to a financial report dated June 30, the golf course is forecasted to bring in 89 percent of its estimated revenue and spend 93 percent of its estimated expenditures.

Yet McCarthy said in the month since then the forecast, particularly in the past two weeks, has seen improvement. He added the city might not spend money that is included in the estimations.

“The big part of next year’s budget is we were supposed to buy some new mowers,” he said. “I don’t know when we get around to doing the budget whether we buy them or not. The mowers are breaking down all the time.”

Even if the golf course ultimately required a $44,000 subsidy from the city, it’s less than the $91,000 subsidy it needed last year, which was a 285 percent decrease from 2010 when it cost the city $228,000.

McCarthy stated that the biggest improvement with the golf course’s financial situation has been better handling of the restaurant operations.

“We’ve made some improvements there,” McCarthy said. “They’ve been able to at least on the restaurant and on the whole keep minimizing expenses. Basically they decreased the number of hours in the restaurant and fewer people in the restaurant. We still have a good chance (of breaking even). If we have a good weather month, then it could end up being a positive number and we don’t have to transfer any money.”

City Manager David Johnston said that cutting down on restaurant operations, plus good weather, has enabled the golf course to reach where it is.

“We’ve cut down the food and beverage,” he said. “You need to have some food and beverage to support golfing…but we don’t have the same (food and beverage) model when I got here in (20)09 when it was full bar, full restaurant. But it still costs money and we’ve been having good golfing activity. In May we had wonderful weekends. July has been just great.”

Johnston echoed McCarthy’s theory that good weather equals higher revenues from the course.

He added, however, that the building for the restaurant will need to be repaired at some point, which may require the city to dip into the general fund to pay for that.

“We do have a tired building that needs attention,” he said. “It needs work and that means it needs money, and if we get the operations breaking even or making a profit, we could concentrate on making some capital investment on that building. Otherwise it’s going to come out of the general fund. But most park programs are public goods programs anyway. I know there is a desire they pay for themselves but rarely do they do across the country.”

In an interview for the Reporter in 2011, Johnston attributed the sharp decline in city subsidies to two factors: the Lake Wilderness Golf Course Task Force and changes made by the contract manager.

The Lake Wilderness Golf Task Force was formed in June 2010 in order to review the operation and find a way to lower its costs to the city. Ever since the city purchased the golf course in November 2006, it has needed funding from the city to break even. Though the golf course itself brings in a small profit annually, the Lake Wilderness Grill continued to operate at a loss. From 2007 to 2009 revenue for the restaurant dropped more than 50 percent.

The task force, comprised of a variety of individuals who lived in Maple Valley or used the golf course, spent six months reviewing data before it made several recommendations in December 2010. Another result of the task force’s findings was a 12 month extension of Premier Golf Center’s management of the golf course. Seattle-based Premier Golf Center has managed it since 2007, about six months after the city bought the property.

“Our charge is to break even or make it a profitable business,” Johnston told the Reporter in 2011. “And so that’s one of the mandates that Premier received from us. You’ve got to pay attention to costs and how you do business.”