VENTURA : $29,500 OKd for Golf Course Study

The Ventura City Council agreed Monday to spend $29,500 to learn how the city can run its golf courses better and whether it can build a new course or expansion on 55 acres bordering Olivas Park Golf Course.

The council voted unanimously to hire Economic Research Associates, a Los Angeles consultant, to audit the operations of the Olivas Park course and Buenaventura Golf Course and recommend improvements.

The city owns and operates both courses but hires contractors to run the pro shops and food concessions and maintain the landscape at the Olivas Park Course, said city parks Supt. Bill Byerts.

Every 10 years, the city commissions such a study to learn whether the courses are run efficiently and the contractors are performing properly, Byerts said.

This year, the consultant also will be asked to make a recommendation on how the city should use the 55-acre strip of land bounded by the golf course and Harbor Boulevard, just south of Olivas Park Drive, Byerts said.

He said the city is considering several options: restoring nine holes on the land that were washed out by floods in 1969 and adding them to the existing 18 holes to make 27; building a separate but smaller golf course with short, par-3 holes, or building a few standard-size holes with an attached driving range for golf instructions.

Byerts said the consultant will interview local golfers and course managers, review the rising numbers of golfers in Ventura and and examine Ventura’s needs for public golf courses before making its recommendations.