REDCLIFF, AB – Riverview Golf Club was able to pay a large portion of a loan back to the town of Redcliff.
The club handed over a $100,000 cheque to the town on Monday night during the regular council meeting.
The sum is part of a 2019 loan worth $315,000 from the town.
In October 2018, the golf club released they were facing more than $400,000 in short-term debt.
The loan is for 10 years and consolidates several debts the club is facing, including debts to the town.
Riverview vice president Bill Duncan says thanks to a surplus last year, they were able to pay this lump sum for 2021.
The funding came from golf course revenue from members and green fees.
“It’s awesome, like I said we really owe a lot to our members, to our volunteers, our staff that kept things financially kind of tight and operated on a very tight budget rather than overspending, we made sure we paid our debt and we stayed within our limits and we able to have a good year,” Duncan told Chat News.
According to the town, this cheque covers both 2021 required bi-annual payment of about $31,000 and the remaining $69,000 is to go directly toward the outstanding principal.
The payment is also intended to cover an additional payment of $35,000 as agreed to by both parties in the event adult memberships exceed 200 members in any given season.
Duncan says they have a little over half of the loan paid off and scheduled payments will follow.
“As long as things go well, we’ll be back with another payment this time next year or this fall coming up. We’ll shoot towards paying some more off.”
Duncan says they have 150 members signed up right now and expect to have 200 members again this golf season.
“Like anything else, we have aging equipment, aging infrastructure, our irrigation system really does need a real cash infusion and right now that’s a little out of the picture. Right now we’re just trying to keep things going with what we got and not try to waste any money.”
